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Triumphant  Ministry 


LETTERS  FROM 

TIMOTHY  KILBOURN   T^^.xcA yJf 

TO  '    ~"  *■  *T  "  ■  * U  Arvi es  Mir 

FRED  GAYNOR 

Assistant  Minister  in  the  City  of 
the  Stranger 


With  an  Introduction  by 

CHARLES  R.  ERDMAN,  D.D. 


Philadelphia 

The  Westminster  Press 
1914 


S- 


V«/oime.r> 


Copyright,  19 14,  by 
F.  M.  Braselmann 


Contents 


Introduction 
I.    The  Call 
II.    The  Equipment 

III.  The  Tax 

IV.  The  Fellowship 
V.    The  Goal      . 


PAGE 

V 

I 

24 

44 
66 

87 


Introduction 

The  joys  of  the  Christian  ministry, — its 
privileges  and  its  possibiUties,  its  demands  and 
its  rewards,  its  companionships  and  its  high 
purpose, — such  is  the  glad,  serious  burden  of 
this  book.  Were  its  notes  of  cheer  and  its 
words  of  counsel  more  widely  sounded,  we 
should  hear  less  frequently  the  familiar  question : 
Why  do  not  more  men  of  the  highest  ability 
volunteer  for  the  ministry  ?  At  least  a  partial 
answer  to  this  question  has  been  given  in  the 
statement  that  it  is  because  the  claims  and 
attractions  of  the  ministry  are  so  seldom  pre- 
sented to  young  men  by  parents  and  pastors 
and  teachers  and  friends.  This  little  packet 
of  letters  presents  them  with  all  the  im- 
pressiveness  of  deep  conviction,  and  with  all 
the  power  of  a  personal  appeal. 

The  message  of  these  pages  is  then,  first  of 
all,  to  the  youth  of  our  schools  and  colleges, 
our  academies  and  universities.  It  shows  them 
that    the    "call   to   the   ministry"    is   nothing 

[v] 


INTRODUCTION 


magical  or  mysterious,  but  a  divinely  presented 
opportunity  for  rendering  the  highest  possible 
human  service  ;  that  the  work  of  the  ministry  is 
not  too  difficult  for  men  of  few  talents  if  they 
are  wholly  dedicated  to  Christ,  and  that  it  offers 
the  greatest  opportunity  on  earth  to  the  man  of 
marked  ability  who  also  possesses  the  rare  gift 
of  an  attractive  personality  ;  that  the  dreaded 
isolation  of  the  ministry  is  compensated  by  the 
most  inspiring  of  companionships  ;  that  its  sat- 
isfactions and  rewards  are  as  real  as  they  are 
unique,  but  its  demands  are  such  that  triumph 
is  assured  to  those  alone  *'  who  have  soldier 
stuff  in  them  and  can  endure."  No  young 
man  should  be  made  to  determine  his  life  work 
without  first  being  granted  the  light  of  such  a 
vision. 

No  less  vital  is  the  message  to  those  students 
who  have  already  volunteered  for  the  Christian 
ministry.  They  are  shown  the  kind  of  equip- 
ment their  future  work  demands ;  they  are 
reminded  of  the  seriousness  as  well  as  the  glory 
of  their  task ;  they  are  urged  to  more  diligent 
use  of  present  opportunities ;  they  are  assured 
that  the  largest  work  is  usually  done  by  those 

[vi] 


INTRODUCTION 


who,  in  the  days  of  discipline,  have  been  made 
acquainted  with  the  best  tools  and  have  become 
most  skillful  in  their  use  ;  they  are  pointed  to 
right  paths  of  endeavor,  warned  of  pitfalls,  and 
led  toward  fields  of  fruitful  service.  No  class  of 
students  more  need  or  more  fully  appreciate 
sympathetic  counsel  and  guidance  than  those 
in  our  schools  of  theology  ;  and  they  will  not 
fail  to  prize  these  pages,  written  for  them  by 
one  whose  point  of  view  is  not  academic  nor 
theoretical  but  that  of  an  active  pastor  whose 
words  are  expressions  of  his  own  experience  and 
work. 

Here  too  is  a  message  for  those  whose 
ministry  has  not  been  "  triumphant."  There 
are  such.  For  them  the  dreams  of  earlier  days 
have  faded ;  they  have  found  the  task  other  and 
more  arduous  than  they  had  supposed ;  dis- 
appointment, hardship,  sorrow,  and  pain  have 
been  the  companions  of  their  journey  ;  coveted 
opportunities  have  been  denied  them ;  neither 
their  efforts  nor  their  motives  have  been  appre- 
ciated ;  lack  of  sympathy  and  cruel  criticism 
have  chilled  their  hearts  ;  to  them  the  unseen 
has  become  increasingly  unreal ;  life  and  service 

[  vii  ] 


INTRODUCTION 


have  grown  more  hopeless  and  dreary  than 
they  dare  confess  ;  the  battle  has  gone  against 
them  and  they  are  conscious  of  defeat.  To 
such  these  searching  letters  may  disclose  the 
unconscious  sources  of  their  weakness,  or  may 
show  that  apparent  failure  has  been  real  success. 
They  may  suggest  that  the  work  has  lacked 
method,  and  right  motive  ;  that  the  preaching 
has  not  lifted  high  the  cross,  or  glorified  the 
divine  Saviour ;  that  the  will  has  not  been 
wholly  yielded  to  Christ,  or  that  **the  closet 
with  the  closed  door  "  has  been  neglected  ;  that 
seeming  misfortune  has  been  actual  fault. 

On  the  other  hand  to  some,  whose  loyal 
service  appears  to  be  rewarded  by  no  glories  of 
manifest  victory,  who  by  trial  and  pain  are  be- 
ing better  prepared  for  their  ministry  of  con- 
solation, these  lines  will  bring  reassurance  and 
comfort  and  hope.  They  may  have  passed  a 
Troas,  where  disappointment  and  anxiety  made 
them  turn  from  open  doors  ;  and  now,  like  a 
welcome  messenger,  these  words  of  cheer,  show- 
ing them  the  essential  nature  of  their  work,  the 
eternal  issues  of  their  task,  the  unseen  influences 
of  their  sacrifice,  and  the  divine  purpose  in  their 


[  viii  ] 


INTRODUCTION 


sufferings,  may  enable  them  to  exclaim  with  the 
apostle,  as  they  start  forward  on  their  way : 
"  Thanks  be  unto  God,  who  always  leadeth  us 
in  triumph  in  Christ." 

Then,  too,  there  are  those  who  believe  they 
are  experiencing  a  ''triumphant  ministry,"  but 
who  are  self-deceived.  They  have  been  measur- 
ing success  by  numbers,  by  church  attendance 
and  statistical  reports,  by  human  applause  and 
gratifying  popularity;  but  in  the  midst  of 
ecclesiastical  machinery  and  social  activities, 
engrossed  by  engagements,  and  immersed  in  a 
multiplicity  of  executive  details,  they  have  lost 
sight  of  "  the  goal."  They  too,  and  they  not 
least  of  all,  need  the  sober  message  of  these 
letters  in  which,  with  true  perspective,  the  efforts 
and  achievements  of  the  ministry  are  viewed  in 
their  right  relations  and  proportions,  while  it  is 
shown  that  true  success  can  consist  only  in  an 
increasing  knowledge  of  Christ  and  in  the  re- 
newal of  souls  by  bringing  them  into  fellowship 
with  God  through  his  Son,  our  Saviour. 

Shall  we  say,  however,  that  these  letters  will 
be  of  value  only  to  those  already  named,  to 
those  who  may  enjoy  the  high  privilege  of  be- 

[ix] 


INTRODUCTION 


ing  ordained  preachers  of  the  Word  ?  Shall  we 
not  rather  conclude  that  such  vivid  pictures  of 
a  pastor's  life  will  be  illuminating  and  helpful 
to  all  the  followers  of  Christ  who  thus  may  learn 
more  perfectly  what  is  expected  and  required 
of  Christian  ministers,  what  is  the  nature  of 
their  work,  what  the  divine  content  of  their 
message,  what  their  need  of  sympathy,  encour- 
agement and  support?  To  spread  such  a 
message  is  certain  to  make  the  ministry  ever 
more  triumphant  and  to  hasten  the  coming  and 
kingdom  of  our  Lord. 

Charles  R.  Erdman. 
Prince  ton  y  New  Jersey. 


[x] 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  CALL 

Dear  Fred  : 

"What  is  the  secret  of  the  triumphant 
ministry?"  That  is  just  the  question  I  faced 
the  other  day,  A  young  friend  visited  me,  the 
second  time  within  a  year,  for  counsel  and  ad- 
vice. The  first  time  he  came,  I  happened  to  be 
in  his  college  town.  He  met  me  at  the  rail- 
road station  as  I  was  leaving  for  home.  He 
came  to  talk  with  me  about  what  he  should  do 
when  he  graduated  in  June.  I  said,  '*  What  are 
you  thinking  about,  James  ? "  He  replied,  "  The 
ministry  and  medicine."  I  saw  that  he  wanted 
me  to  tell  him  my  side  of  the  story,  so  I  began. 
This  is  the  way  I  summed  it  up  for  him : 
"James,  there  is  no  vocation  in  all  the  world 
that  furnishes  a  man  such  opportunities.  There 
is  no  other  that  taxes  all  the  faculties  of  heart 
and  brain,  all  the  resources  of  simon-pure  man, 
as  does  the  ministry.  You  will  have  more 
hardships  to  endure,  more  temptations  to  meet, 
[1] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


more  assaults  on  your  courage  to  face,  more 
testing  of  high  and  noble  purpose,  more  call  to 
bear  and  forbear,  more  draft  on  all  your  re- 
sources of  whatsoever  sort,  in  the  ministry,  than 
in  any  other  profession  into  which  you  might 
enter.  Now  don't  go  into  it  unless  you  feel  you 
must ;  then  if  a  door  swings  open,  enter  it  and 
count  on  great  opportunities  for  usefulness." 

He  made  his  second  visit  a  few  days  ago 
when  he  came  in  to  say,  "  I  am  going  to  the 
seminary  on  Monday  to  study  for  the  ministry, 
and  I  want  to  hear  you  talk  for  a  litde  while  on 
the  things  which  you  think  worth  while  for  one 
just  entering  the  seminary."  I  never  before 
more  earnestly  desired  help  from  God  than  I 
did  when  I  faced  this  young  man  with  these 
words  on  his  lips.  We  got  on  splendidly  for 
an  hour.  If  he  keeps  before  him  the  salient 
points  of  that  conversation  and  the  conclusions 
we  reached,  he  will  discover  the  triumphant 
ministry  earlier  than  it  has  fallen  to  me  to  dis- 
cover it.  If  I  tell  you  a  little  of  my  own  history, 
you  will  see  where  the  triumphant  ministry  be- 
gan with  me. 

My  decision  to  study  for  the  ministry  was 
[2] 


THE    CALL 


reached  while  teaching  a  country  school,  at  the 
close  of  my  academy  course  and  immediately 
preceding  my  freshman  year  in  college.  It 
was  not  made  at  the  time  of  an  impending 
crisis,  when  the  mind  is  balanced  between 
grave  alternatives.  No  calamity,  real  or  im- 
aginary, confronted  me,  if  my  decision  should 
be  against  the  ministry.  There  were  no  per- 
plexities of  any  sort.  I  had  been  rocked  in  the 
cradle  of  a  home  missionary  manse  and  brought 
up  in  the  conviction  that  God  has  a  claim  on 
our  lives.  I  knew  my  parents  expected  me  to 
be  of  service  in  the  world.  I  lived  in  intimate 
fellowship  with  my  father — a  man  of  devout, 
mystical  spirit,  entirely  untouched  with  worldly 
ambitions,  who  practiced  his  profession  with 
great  joy  and  fidelity.  His  example  was  ever 
before  me.  It  did  not  occur  to  me  with  any 
force  to  follow  any  one  but  him.  When  the 
actual  decision  was  made  to  study  for  the  min- 
istry, I  pressed  quite  naturally  and  religiously 
on  to  the  goal.  It  never  occurred  to  me  then, 
and  it  does  not  occur  to  me  now,  that  I  am  ex- 
alted above  other  men  by  the  choice  I  have 
made.     Take  it  from  me,  Fred,  the  man,  who, 

[3] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


in  accordance  with  his  history  and  circumstances 
and  talents,  chooses  to  serve  God  and  his  fel- 
lows as  a  farmer,  a  mechanic,  an  engineer,  a 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary,  a  doctor,  a  merchant,  or 
a  chemist,  chooses  as  honorably  and  religiously 
as  the  man  who  chooses  to  serve  in  the  ministry. 
It  may  be  not  quite  orthodox  for  a  minister  to 
take  this  view.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  John 
R.  Mott,  Robert  E.  Speer,  John  Wanamaker, 
Luther  Burbank,  Charles  W.  Stiles,  Woodrow 
Wilson,  with  a  host  of  others  who  might  be 
named,  have  chosen  as  well  and  rendered  as 
much  service  to  God  and  men  as  some  of  our 
great  ministers  have  rendered.  The  main  thing 
is  to  hear  your  call  from  the  heights  and  to  fol- 
low it — ever  on  the  ascent  as  you  go  through 
the  world,  lifting  up  your  fellows  and  carrying 
them  to  God  with  you. 

However,  my  decision  was  made,  and  my  vo- 
cation has  been  followed,  in  a  time  when  the 
emphasis  of  our  civilization  has  been  against 
my  choice.  The  opportunities  for  personal  and 
material  prosperity  have  been  multiplied  and 
the  multitude  have  followed  after  them.  Can- 
didates for  these  advantages  have  increased 
[4] 


THE    CALL 


and  those  for  the  ministry  have  dedined.  Many 
ministers  have  been  cast  down  in  these  past 
twenty  years  by  the  fashion  of  the  times,  which 
argues  that  a  man  who  makes  money,  produces 
a  new  spear  of  grass,  discovers  some  disease- 
breeding  bug  or  bacillus,  builds  a  railroad,  or 
piles  up  wealth  of  this  sort,  is  the  only  bene- 
factor of  the  race.  The  man  who  takes  the  long 
look — that  sweeps  the  eternities  and  scales  the 
heavenlies — is  discredited.  Many  people  think 
he  looks  too  far,  that  he  is  impractical.  We  are 
poor  mortals  of  clay,  sad  failures  on  account 
of  heredity  and  environment,  oppressed  with 
sickness  and  hunger,  in  great  need  of  bread  and 
butter  and  bank  accounts.  Satisf)^  our  hunger, 
heal  our  sickness,  improve  our  environment,  lift 
us  toward  success  and  business  prosperity,  and 
you  are  accounted  a  practical  servant  of  society. 
You  will  surely  be  affected  by  this  fashion  of 
the  times,  as  I  have  been  ;  but  take  this  into  ac- 
count. While  such  activities  are  not  the  chief 
work  of  the  minister,  he  is  not  altogether  unre- 
lated to  them.  The  triumphant  ministry  de- 
pends upon  two  things  at  this  point.  First,  the 
minister's  clear  and  accurate  vision  of  civiliza- 

[5] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


tion  ;  second,  his  relating  himself  to  that  civili- 
zation as  a  spiritual  force.  The  condition  of 
the  common  people  and  the  circumstances  of 
their  daily  toil,  the  reward  of  their  services,  the 
opportunity  for  their  children,  the  attitude  of 
the  public  mind  and  conscience  toward  them, 
is  most  largely  and  favorably  established  in  the 
lands  where  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  of  Christ 
is  a  spiritual  force.  Is  there  not  an  indubitable 
connection  between  that  gospel  thus  preached 
and  these  favorable  conditions  for  humanity? 
I  believe  there  is.  Therefore,  when  choosing 
my  vocation,  I  reached  the  conclusion  that  the 
man  whose  talents  and  training  and  circum- 
stances of  life  conspired  to  fit  him  for  the  min- 
istry and  to  turn  him  to  it,  would  find  a  glorious 
opportunity  to  afifect  practically  the  civilization 
of  his  time. 

I  was  not  without  ambition.  I  entertained  a 
hope  that  some  day  I  might  be  equal  to  some 
"  larger  sphere  of  influence."  Most  of  the  men 
who  are  in  such  spheres  enter  them  before  they 
are  forty.  I  worked  hard  and  rattled  some  door 
knobs  to  such  spheres  in  the  first  seven  or  eight 
years.  But  I  found  that  the  ears  on  the  other 
[6] 


THE    CALL 


side  of  those  doors  were  deaf  to  all  who  did  not 
have  some  private  wire  connections,  or  who  had 
not  made  enough  noise  outside  to  attract  atten- 
tion. Our  country  is  a  very  noisy  one,  and  not 
attentive  to  men  who  are  in  quiet  places  and 
doing  their  work  in  a  quiet  way.  My  disap- 
pointment was  very  keen  when  I  discovered 
this.  I  will  not  repeat  the  story  here.  For 
**  substance  of  doctrine,"  as  the  theologians  say, 
it  occurred  three  times  in  my  history  within 
eight  years,  before  I  realized  its  truth.  But 
awakening  to  it,  these  experiences  conspired  to 
give  a  clearer  vision  of  my  great  calling  and 
helped  to  get  my  eyes  on  the  right  things. 
And,  in  the  triumphant  ministry,  that  is  one  of 
the  greatest  considerations.  Every  disappoint- 
ment makes  its  direct  contribution  to  the  tri- 
umph, if  we  accept  the  gospel  we  are  set  to 
preach.     If  we  believe, 

**  One  adequate  support 

For  the  calamities  of  mortal  life 
Exists,  one  rnly ;  the  assured  belief 
That  the  procession  of  our  fate  howe'er 
Sad  or  disturbed,  is  ordered  by  a  Being 
Of  infinite  benevolence  and  power  ; 
Whose  everlasting  purposes  embrace 
All  accidents,  converting  them  to  good." 
[7] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


However,  a  man  does  not  know  this  at  the 
beginning.  He  may  preach  it.  He  may  be- 
Ueve  it.  By  and  by,  through  disappointment 
and  prayer  and  the  change  of  circumstances 
and  the  incoming  peace — which  is  better  than 
understanding — and  with  "  experience,"  he  gets 
the  right  perspective  and  the  vision  that  enables 
him  to  work  and  rest  and  wait.  This  is  his 
first  triumph — the  triumph  within. 

There  are  at  least  three  ways  in  which  the 
ministry  will  present  itself  to  those  who  hear  the 
call  to  it,  as  an  opportunity  for  triumph.  There 
is  the  opportunity  of  administration.  The  first 
thing  the  young  minister  has  to  face  when  he 
leaves  school  for  actual  work  in  the  ministry,  is 
a  hard  and  fast  ecclesiastical  organization  ;  fre- 
quently inefficient  in  accomplishing  the  task  for 
which  it  exists  in  the  local  congregation.  The 
exact  point  of  inefficiency  is  in  the  spirit  and 
vitality  of  the  official  board.  They  do  not  have 
a  vision  of  the  work  to  be  accomplished.  They 
are  without  inspiration  to  carry  forward  any 
vision  to  realization.  In  consequence  of  this 
lack,  chaos  reigns  in  plans  for  work  and  bank- 
ruptcy in  treasuries  to  support  it.     Ignorance  is 


[8] 


THE    CALL 


found  on  every  hand.  His  official  boards  could 
not  define  the  reason  for  the  Church's  existence 
if  their  Hves  hung  upon  it.  Many  of  them  do 
not  take  the  church  paper  or  journal  that  gives 
them  a  definition  of  the  Church,  its  tasks,  and 
methods  by  which  to  accompHsh  their  work. 
They  are  Hke  what  the  scientific  agriculture 
schools  call  the  old  uneducated  farmer, — ''acci- 
dent workers."  They  go  at  church  business  in 
a  blind,  hit-or-miss  sort  of  way.  While  each 
man  of  them  may  have  made  a  success  of  his 
own  business,  these  same  men  sufTer  utter  defeat 
when  they  take  up  the  business  of  church 
finance,  or  the  management  of  the  so-called 
spiritual  interests  of  the  Church.  The  young 
minister  finds  that  ecclesiastical  forms  circum- 
scribe his  field  and  that  things  have  to  be  ac- 
complished through  channels  long  since  im- 
poverished and  dried  up.  If  he  succeeds  he 
will  be  taxed  on  every  side.  Customs  inimical 
to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  will  have  to 
be  broken  down.  Blindness  as  deep  as  a  star- 
less night  will  have  to  be  pierced  with  light. 
Prejudices  as  fixed  and  narrow  as  little  minds 
will  have  to  be  faced.  And  perhaps  a  Chinese 
[9] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


inertia  and  love  of  ease  will  have  to  be  moved 
before  he  accomplishes  his  task.  There  are 
three  things  he  will  have  to  do  if  he  makes  any 
progress  himself,  or  if  he  moves  the  Church  to 
achievement  or  respect. 

First,  he  must  present  a  clearly  defined  pur- 
pose, as  stated  in  the  gospel  of  Christ,  for 
which  the  Church  exists.  No  man  with  the 
gospel  of  Christ  in  his  heart  and  Christ's  vision 
for  the  Church  before  his  face,  can  be  content 
with  his  church  as  his  field.  He  must  make  it 
his  force  in  the  world.  Second,  he  must  have 
plans  adequate  for  engaging  all  the  resources, 
latent  and  active,  in  his  church  and  for  accom- 
plishing the  world-vision  which  he  holds. 
Third,  he  must  have  sufficient  persistence  and 
patience  to  keep  at  his  task  till  things  are 
brought  to  pass. 

If,  by  any  process  of  inaction  or  consent,  he 
accepts  the  methods  of  congregations  in  many 
communities  for  supporting  the  Church,  he  will 
speedily  find  himself  the  victim  of  circum- 
stances humiliating  to  himself  and  impoverish- 
ing to  his  purse.  He  will  find  that  the  note  of 
authority  in   the   gospel   he   proclaims  is  lost. 

[10] 


THE    CALL 


He  will  find  that  there  is  nothing  to  develop 
and  challenge  the  lives  of  men  to  high  and  noble 
living. 

But  if  he  has  clear  and  definite  views,  and  is 
faithful  to  them,  he  will  have  a  triumphant  min- 
istry. There  will  be  those  who  will  be  quick  to 
see  the  better  things  and  catch  the  vision  of  the 
better  way.  Many  will  come  to  see  how  their 
lives  are  enlarged  and  enriched  in  the  broader 
horizon  he  pushes  back  for  them.  And  year  by 
year  he  himself  will  grow  into  the  larger  man 
as  he  reaches  out  for  the  larger  things. 

The  second  opportunity  for  the  triumphant 
ministry  is  in  the  pulpit  There  has  been  a 
great  deal  said  in  the  newspapers  and  magazines 
about  the  decline  of  the  pulpit.  We  have  been 
told  that  the  day  for  the  pulpit  is  gone,  and  the 
problem  of  getdng  a  Sunday  evening  congre- 
gadon  in  the  cities  and  a  full  house  in  the 
mornings,  everywhere,  is  cited  in  proof  that  it 
is  soo  But,  my  dear  Fred,  you  have  never 
heard  any  prince  of  God,  who  occupies  a  pulpit, 
talking  it. 

There  are  several  things  that  lead  me  to  be- 
lieve the  pulpit  is  a  place  of  power.  First,  the 
[11] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  are 
unapproached  in  searching  the  conscience,  com- 
forting the  heart  and  reveahng  the  will  of  God 
to  men.  In  the  second  place,  Jesus  Christ  is  a 
living  power  for  regenerating  and  recovering 
wasted  humanity.  There  is  only  one  message 
of  hope  for  the  woman  who  has  lost  her  crown, 
and  that  is  Christ's  word  to  her.  There  is  only 
one  power  in  the  world  to-day  that  can  lift  a 
man  by  a  single  bound  to  heights  to  which 
culturists  would  need  years  to  raise  him,  if,  in- 
deed, they  could  raise  him  at  all,  and  that 
power  is  the  power  of  Christ.  Third,  while  the 
great  medium  of  education  to-day  is  the  printed 
page,  the  most  thrilling  medium  for  the  trans- 
mission of  truth  is  a  living-  person,  stirred  with 
a  great  passion  for  mankind.  This  is  the  op- 
portunity of  the  pulpit  for  the  man  who  is 
called  of  God  to  occupy  it — to  unfold  the  mes- 
sage of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  under  the 
power  of  Christ,  out  of  a  heart  quivering  with 
interest  in  men. 

There  is  not  a  single  field  of  human  conflict, 
action,   pathos,   tragedy  or  triumph  over  which 

he  may  not  range,  yes,  over  which  he  may  not 
[  12  ] 


THE    CALL 


have  to  range  in  the  preparation  of  his  message 
to  men,  as  the  years  speed  away. 

One  of  the  inexpressible  joys  for  you  will  be 
the  appreciation  men  show  of  your  knowledge 
of  them  and  sympathy  with  them.  Every  week, 
it  may  be  many  times  in  some  weeks,  you  will 
receive  acknowledgments  of  their  indebtedness 
to  you.  Acknowledgments  will  come,  not  from 
a  narrow  circle  of  intimate  friends,  but  from  men 
and  women  in  various  and  widely  different 
circumstances,  and  from  strangers  as  well  as 
friends.  They  will  talk  of  your  help,  or  comfort, 
or  instruction,  or  inspiration,  and  sometimes 
they  will  say  nothing  but  just  wait  to  walk  home 
with  you  at  the  close  of  the  Sabbath  day,  that 
perchance  the  very  breezes  that  blow  upon  your 
faces  may  tell  you  the  gratitude  which  they  feel. 
On  the  other  hand,  you  will  have  evidence  of 
your  power  in  the  passionate  opposition  the 
forces  of  hell  wage  against  your  valiant  warfare. 
Look  abroad  and  see  how  they  are  doing  it  in 
high  places.  Take  for  example  one  instance 
published  throughout  the  land.  Canon  Hensley 
Henson,  standing  in  his  pulpit  in  London, 
uttered  such  a  denunciation  of  the  atrocities  of 

[13] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


the  rubber  industry  in  South  America  and  so 
fearlessly  arraigned  the  men  who  were  guilty, 
that  the  counselors  for  these  great  industries 
threatened  him  for  his  plain  speech.  They 
could  not  face  the  assault  of  a  fearless  and 
righteous  proclamation  of  the  truth.  Before 
you  began  your  ministry,  but  a  few  years  ago, 
a  writer  in  a  great  weekly,  criticizing  the  pulpit, 
said,  **  The  men  who  bring  things  to  pass  care 
no  more  for  the  message  of  the  preacher  than 
they  care  for  the  opinions  of  a  pretty  woman." 
Follow  Beecher  on  the  slavery  issue ;  Canon 
Henson  on  the  rubber  issue ;  all  the  pulpits  in 
this  country  on  the  temperance  issue  ;  and  see. 
There  is  no  agency  of  which  the  forces  of  vice 
and  intemperance,  and  tainted,  easy  money, 
and  corrupt  politics,  are  so  afraid  as  they  are 
of  the  ministers  of  God  who  know,  who  have 
forceful  wills,  who  love  God  and  their  fellows, 
and  who  are  not  afraid  of  the  faces  of  men. 

"  Keep  the  preachers  out  of  this  (temperance) 
fight,"  is  the  instruction  the  liquor  interests  have 
sent  out  to  their  henchmen  everywhere.  That 
is  what  they  are  saying  right  here  in  this  country 
town  to-day.     They  know,   under  the  blessing 

[14] 


THE    CALL 


of  God,  that  the  preacher  is  going  to  win  and 
that  the  pulpit,  his  throne,  is  a  place  of  power. 

The  third  opportunity  of  the  triumphant 
ministry  is  your  private  and  personal  work  as 
pastor.  Here  is  an  incident  of  last  week.  He 
was  just  a  plain,  everyday,  hard-working 
manager  of  a  public  corporation.  We  were  in 
the  dressing  room  of  the  gymnasium  preparing 
for  a  game  of  volley  ball.  I  knew  my  man  and 
I  said,  ''  I  have  just  had  an  interview  with 
Mr.  S on  the  subject  of  his  personal  re- 
lation to  Christ."  **  Did  you  get  him  ?  "  said 
my  friend,  now  stripped  to  the  skin.  ''  Not 
to-day,"  said  I,  "  but  I  will  in  time."  ''  Well, 
that  is  worth  while,"  he  continued,  as  he  got 
into  his  sleeveless  shirt.  *'  Often  when  I  solicit 
an  order  and  get  it,  I  feel  of  how  little  con- 
sequence it  is  either  to  my  customer  or  myself ; 
but  when  you  preach  Christ  to  a  man  and  win 
him  to  Christ,  you  have  accomplished  something 
worth  while."  That  is  a  plain  workingman's 
estimate  of  the  ministry  triumphant. 

I  had  a  telephone  message  one  day,  asking 
me  to  go  and  talk  with  a  man  over  his  domestic 
troubles.     The    circumstances    of    the   trouble 

[15] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


were  very  delicate.  Patience  and  forbearance 
had  been  stretched  almost  too  much.  This 
man  had  so  nearly  lost  heart  that  he  had  gone 
to  his  room  to  take  his  life.  Surprised  there, 
by  one  who  loved  him  dearly,  the  deed  was  not 
done.  On  learning  the  facts,  I  hastened  to  him 
at  his  office.  No  one  was  about  on  business,  so 
I  went  in.  We  locked  the  doors  and  sat  down 
to  talk  things  over  and  if  possible  to  find  a  way 
out.  When  I  left  an  hour  after,  he  said  :  ''  I  am 
so  glad  you  came.  The  way  seems  clearer 
now."  I  went  out,  and  for  weeks  we  worked 
away  until  things  were  adjusted  and  the  strain 
removed.  I  had  been  gone  for  a  month,  when, 
on  my  return,  after  some  weeks,  I  went  to  this 
office  on  business.  **  Well,  you  have  neglected 
me  a  long  time,  my  friend  !  "  said  this  man  with 
a  smile  as  he  looked  into  my  face.  Then  we 
talked  the  whole  matter  over  again  and  I  went 
home  to  score  another  triumph  in  the  ministry 
to  men. 

My  record  for  a  day,  repeated  again  and 
again  in  the  lives  of  men  ministering  in  quiet 
places  over  this  land,  will  illustrate  the  trium- 
phant ministry.     A  funeral  at  7  :  30  A.  M.  (of  an 

[16] 


THE    CALL 


old  soldier,  a  Mason,  but  not  a  church  member, 
where  a  sermon  was  preached  "  by  request") 
Back  to  the  study  at  lo  A.  M.  Dinner  at 
12  :  45  P.  M.  Out  on  pastoral  rounds  at  2  P.  M. 
— first  to  the  hospital,  accompanied  by  two 
church  officers,  to  receive  an  old  woman  eighty- 
five  years  of  age  into  church  membership  ;  from 
there  to  call  on  an  old  pauper  woman  with  a 
secret  care  ;  then  to  a  deserted  wife  and  mother, 
to  find  out  how  life  is  with  her  ;  then  to  a  family 
with  a  careless  and  ungodly  husband  and  father, 
whom  we  would  Hke  to  get  interested  in  going 
to  church ;  then  to  a  young  laborer's  home 
whose  little  child  ought  to  be  baptized  ;  then  to 
find  the  home  of  a  lost  child  crying  on  the 
street ;  then  for  home  and  supper.  It  was  8  P.  M. 
when  I  sat  down  to  that  meal.  After  supper 
my  favorite  journal  was  read  and  a  few  lines 
were  penned,  and  I  lay  down  to  sleep  and  rest, 
grateful  for  the  day  thus  past  and  for  the  promise 
of  a  busy  to-morrow. 

You  ask,  "  Are  there  no  gloomy  days  in  such 
a  ministry  ?  "  Many  of  them.  Many  a  man, 
who  did  run  well  for  a  while,  slips  and  falls — 
and    sometime    utterly   fails,   and   your   labor 

[17] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


seems  to  have  been  in  vain.  Many  a  mistake 
is  made,  over  which  you  may  actually  shed 
tears.  Many  a  truth  must  be  spoken,  after 
which  some  men  will  not  speak  to  you  when 
they  meet  you  in  the  street,  unless  it  be  to  scold 
or  condemn.  Many  a  hardship  will  have  to  be 
faced  in  the  course  of  life  that  will  cost  much  in 
sacrifice  and  love. 

Fred,  don't  hanker  too  much  for  the  big 
church  in  the  big  city.  The  best  work  is  often 
done  in  the  small  city  and  town.  Triumphant 
ministries  in  such  places  abound.  I  am  think- 
ing now  of  a  country  minister  who  received  the 
Great  Promotion  three  years  ago.  He  preached 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  for  about  forty  years 
after  his  ordination,  then,  as  Peter  Cartwright 
says,  in  his  autobiography,  of  a  certain  ''Brother 
Lee,"  witnessed  a  good  confession  to  the  end, 
fell  from  the  walls  of  Zion  with  the  trump  of  God 
in  his  hand  and  (went)  to  his  reward.  When  he 
went  away,  he  left  his  wife  with  three  sons  and 
two  daughters  to  mourn  his  departure.  He 
died  in  a  small  village,  about  such  as  he  had 
spent  the  most  of  his  life  in,  in  one  of  the  central 
states.     The  chief  social  institutions  of  that  com- 

[18] 


THE    CALL 


munity  are  the  post  office,  the  general  store, 
the  blacksmith  shop,  the  schoolhouse  and  the 
church.  The  cemetery  in  which  his  poor  form 
is  laid  has  no  regular  sexton.  It  is  left  to  the 
mercies  of  those  who  have  loved  ones  lying 
there.  The  villagers  go  in  from  time  to  time 
with  their  scythes  and  mow  the  yard,  and  with 
their  shovels  re-sod  the  graves  and  fill  up  those 
that  have  sunk  below  level.  Once  a  year  they 
also  decorate  the  graves  with  the  simple,  old- 
fashioned  flowers  which  they  have  gathered 
from  their  back  gardens  and  front  yards.  No 
grave  is  overlooked.  Some  friendly  hand,  once 
a  year  at  least,  lays  a  tribute  of  love  and  respect 
upon  the  little  mound  marking  the  place  where 
they  laid  him. 

He  was  licensed  to  preach  in  early  manhood, 
but  a  gift  for  business  and  trade  kept  him  until 
the  call  came  for  him  to  take  charge  of  a  par- 
ticular church,  when  he  resigned  his  position 
which  paid  him  twelve  hundred  dollars  a  year 
and  began  to  ride  the  circuit  at  six  hundred  dol- 
lars. He  never  had  a  salary  of  more  than  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year.  They  eked 
out  this  meager  salary  for  seven  with  "  mission- 

[19] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


ary  barrels"  which  the  women  of  large,  wealthy, 
city  churches  sent  to  them  through  their  society. 
These  '*  barrels  "  were  opened  with  great  excite- 
ment when  they  came.  And  the  people  noticed 
that  the  preacher's  family  were  "  all  togged  out 
again  in  new  clothes  (?) "  An  interesting  sight 
they  were,  indeed,  when  they  all  sallied  forth 
in  their  secondhand  finery  !  But  they  managed 
to  keep  their  children  in  the  schools  within  their 
reach  and  two  of  them  succeeded  in  getting 
through  college.  And,  what  is  of  far  more  im- 
portance in  the  ministry  triumphant,  all  the 
children  grew  up  to  live  worthy,  upright  Hves. 
Two  of  the  boys  entered  the  ministry  and  all  of 
them  secured  the  one  great  hope  of  the  father's 
life — *'a  clear  tide  to  a  home  in  heaven." 

When  that  family  assembled  to  say  the  last 
farewell,  and  the  friends  had  passed  through  the 
little  parlor  for  a  last  look  at  his  beloved  face, 
the  wife  and  mother  took  her  children  in  and 
shut  the  door.  The  first  paroxysms  of  their 
grief  over,  they  steadied  their  voices  and  the 
people  outside  heard  them  singing  *'  Nearer,  my 
God,  to  thee  " — a  song  he  had  taught  them 
when  these  grown-up  sons  and  daughters  were 

[20] 


THE    CALL 


little  boys  and  girls  about  his  knee.  It  was  the 
same  song  the  men  and  women  sang  when  the 
great  Titanic  went  down.  They  all  stood, 
those  men  and  women  of  millions  and  fame, 
very  much  as  did  the  country  minister's  family 
beside  their  dead — with  little  comfort,  except  a 
splendid  precious  memory  of  work  well  done 
and  a  high  hope  of  heaven. 

There  were  many  dark  days  in  that  home — 
the  darkness  which  poverty,  unrequited  toil, 
humiliating  circumstances,  bring.  But  the 
country  minister  quit  his  ministry  with  confi- 
dence that  God  was  with  him  to  the  end  and 
the  shout  of  victory  was  on  his  tongue. 

When  I  get  really  blue  about  spiritual  achieve- 
ments, or  poorly  rewarded  services,  I  think  of  a 
life  like  that ;  or  I  take  down  my  "  Twice  Born 
Men  "  and  read  for  a  little  while  in  it,  or  the 
"  Everlasting  Mercy  "  and  go  through  it ;  or  I 
remember  my  dear  friend  Callahan,  on  the 
Bowery,  and  how  God  got  a  hold  on  him  ;  or  I 
think  of  the  men  whom  I  have  piloted  from  the 
sick  room  to  the  glory  land  ;  or  I  recall  the  day 
when  Margaret  brought  her  love  affair  to 
counsel  with  me  about  that.     I  consider  these 

[21] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


things  and  I  say  to  myself,  '*  Timothy,  the  min- 
istry is  the  mightiest  opportunity  on  the  face  of 
God's  green  earth  for  a  man  with  heart  and 
brains!"  The  afflictions?  They  shall  work 
''  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory ;  while  we  look  not  at  the 
things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which 
are  not  seen  :  for  the  things  which  are  seen  are 
temporal ;  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen 
are  eternal."  The  triumphant  ministry  is  for 
those  who  have  soldier  stufi  in  them  and  who 
can  endure. 

This  morning  I  received  a  letter  from  a 
gentleman  whose  letterhead  indicates  that  his 
corporation  does  business  in  a  great  center  in 
the  Middle  West  and  in  the  metropolis  of  the 
East.  This  letter  was  about  prayer.  Our 
paths  had  crossed  at  the  Men  and  Religion 
Congress  in  New  York.  He  believes  in  prayer. 
He  knows  other  men  of  *'  big.  business  "  who 
believe  in  prayer.  I  had  sent  him  a  little  book 
on  that  subject.  He  was  writing  me  to  say 
how  much  he  was  helped  in  reading  it  and  how 
interested  he  is  in  trying  to  get  men  banded 
together  in  the  work  of  prayer. 

[22] 


THE    CALL 


Again,  last  spring  I  read  in  my  "  British 
Weekly"  that  William  T.  Stead  had  com- 
panions of  his  rosary,  whom  he  remembered  at 
least  once  a  year  in  prayer — on  the  anniversary 
of  their  first  meeting.  When  things  like  this 
cross  my  path,  frequently  I  am  comforted  with 
the  thought  that  to  teach  men  to  do  these 
things  is  the  privilege  of  the  ministry  tri- 
umphant. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Timothy  Kilbourn. 


[23] 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  EQUIPMENT 

Dear  Fred  : 

Now  that  I  have  written  to  you  on  the 
call  to  the  ministry  and  the  opportunity  which 
the  ministry  offers  to  men  who  have  the  stuff 
of  endurance  in  them,  I  want  to  say  something 
to  you  on  the  subject  of  equipment. 

There  are  three  great  factors  in  the  equip- 
ment of  the  minister  for  the  triumphant  ministry. 
These  are  the  school,  the  personality  of  the 
minister  and  the  closet  with  the  closed  door. 
In  the  course  by  which  the  Church  usually  de- 
termines the  fitness  of  men  for  the  ministry, 
emphasis  is  laid  on  the  first  of  these.  In  my 
judgment,  it  is  of  the  least  importance  in  the 
group.  You  went  to  college,  and  later  to  the 
seminary,  to  prepare  for  the  ministry,  to  equip 
yourself  for  the  work.  It  was  well  you  did. 
In  this  day  nothing  seems  of  more  importance 
than  equipment,  and  certainly  a  proper  amount 

[24] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


of  schooling  is  a  large  contribution  to  that  end. 
But  the  schools  simply  introduce  us  to  some  of 
our  tools.  They  do  very  little  toward  teaching 
us  how  to  use  them.  There  is  many  a  man 
who  is  like  a  young  friend  of  mine,  a  semi- 
invalid.  The  last  time  I  saw  my  friend  he 
took  me  to  his  den  and  showed  me  his  snow- 
shoes  and  skees  and  guns.  He  had  a  splendid 
repeating  rifle  of  the  latest  pattern,  that  would 
have  delighted  the  heart  of  any  old  hunter  in 
the  northern  woods,  who  has  use  for  such  an 
instrument  every  day ;  but  for  this  young 
friend  who  was  keeping  it  in  his  den  there 
was  no  opportunity  to  try  it  out.  All  the  use 
he  made  of  it  was  when  he  fondled  and  pol- 
ished and  admired  it.  It  was  in  grave  danger 
of  being  rusted  and  spoiled  before  he  should 
have  a  chance  to  use  it  in  a  hunt  for  bear. 
Thus  is  it  with  much  of  the  schooling  men  get 
— it  is  spoiled  for  service  before  they  get  a 
chance  to  put  it  to  use. 

The  literature,  philosophy,  chemistry,  as- 
tronomy, biology,  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew 
with  which  I  became  acquainted  a  little,  and 
only   a  little,  in  school,  were  instruments   for 

[25] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


doing  the  great  work  for  which  I  was  being 
equipped.  But  I  needed  to  know  how  to  use 
them.  They  are  of  no  use  to  me  until  I  learn 
how  to  use  them.  It  often  happens  that  men 
have  taken  too  much  time  in  getting  equipped. 
They  have  gone  to  school  too  much.  They 
went  to  the  best  college  within  their  reach  and 
at  the  end  of  their  course  received  their  A.  B. 
Then  they  took  one  or  two  years  in  residence 
there  for  their  Master's  degree.  Then  to  the 
seminary  for  their  B.  D.  Then  they  went  to 
the  great  university  at  home  or  abroad  for 
their  Doctor's  degree.  Thus  they  sallied  forth 
equipped  for  the  fray. 

But  they  did  not  arrive.  They  did  not  pro- 
duce what  you  expected  them  to  produce. 
They  did  not  achieve.  The  fault  was  not  in 
the  schools  or  the  tools,  but  in  themselves,  that 
they  are  underlings. 

Now  it  is  very  important  that  a  man  have 
tools.  And  let  me  urge  you  to  select  with 
great  care  those  you  will  need  ;  and  let  me  also 
remind  you  to  keep  them  up  to  date ;  and 
further  let  me  urge  you  not  simply  to  own 
them  and  fondle  them,  but  to  use  them  so  fre- 

[26] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


quently  that  your  dexterity  and  skill  may  be 
increased  thereby ;  but  never  get  the  notion 
that  tools  are  anything  more  than  the  least 
important  factors  in  your  equipment. 

There  are  scores  of  men  who  know  enough 
about  Hebrew  to  qualify  for  the  Rabbinical 
Priesthood,  who  could  give  you  the  derivation 
of  every  word  on  a  page  of  the  Hebrew  text, 
who  know  all  about  accents,  pointing,  punctu- 
ation and  paragraphs  of  the  original,  but  whose 
equipment  is  of  no  more  advantage  to  them  in 
the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ  than  that  much 
"  pig  Latin  "  of  a  street  gamin's  play.  There 
are  men  who  have  searched  and  read  the 
masters  in  the  literature  of  their  own  tongues 
who  could  not  awaken  a  single  impulse  to 
higher  and  nobler  living  in  the  most  responsive 
soul.  In  all  their  getting  they  did  not  get 
understanding  of  a  single  motive  or  motion  of 
the  human  heart.  You  go  into  their  study  and 
the  smell  of  Russia  and  cloth  is  like  the  spices 
of  Arabia  to  your  nose,  but  they  have  "  cut  no 
channel  "  from  that  study  to  their  stint  for  the 
day. 

There  are   men  who  follow  the  advance  of 

[27] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


science  so  hard  that  they  know  the  latest  discov- 
ery it  has  made,  the  latest  word  it  has  spoken, 
the  latest  formula  it  has  stated,  the  latest  analysis 
it  has  proposed  ;  who  could  not  lead  a  soul  from 
the  darkness  of.  sin  to  the  light  of  life,  however 
eager  that  soul  might  be  to  escape  the  dark- 
ness and  enter  the  light.  They  are  not 
equipped   for   the  work. 

Fred,  it  is  wonderful  what  a  man  can  do  with 
a  jackknife  if  he  has  the  essential  equipment — 
the  talent  to  use  that  knife.  A  man  on  the 
street  once  offered  for  sale  to  me  a  beautiful, 
delicate  and  elaborately  carved  fan,  which  he 
had  wrought  with  his  pocket  knife  out  of  the 
commonest-looking  piece  of  pine  picked  up  in 
the  street.  Now  I  have  just  such  an  instru- 
ment in  my  possession,  and  there  are  scores  of 
pieces  of  pine  in  my  cellar  out  of  which  such 
a  thing  of  beauty  as  he  wrought  might  be 
carved,  but  I  lack  the  necessary  equipment 
for  making  use  of  the  tools. 

A  young  man  went  to  college  and  took  every 
prize  offered  to  his  class.  He  went  to  the  sem- 
inary and  repeated  the  triumph  there.  Receiv- 
ing his  scholarship,  he  went  abroad  for  a  year. 

[28] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


On  his  return  he  became  minister  in  a  suburban 
church  of  sixty  members  ;  but  within  two  years 
and  five  months  he  had  utterly  failed.  When 
his  successor  was  called  to  the  field,  before  ac- 
cepting, he  consulted  with  the  professors  of  that 
seminary  from  which  he  and  the  other  young 
man  had  graduated,  as  to  what  he  should  do 
with  the  call.  These  professors  reviewed  the 
other  man's  history  in  the  school  and  frankly 
warned  this  young  man  against  attempting  the 
work  of  a  field  in  which  their  star  performer  had 
failed.  **  Remember,"  said  they,  "  you  have  no 
such  record  in  school.  He  is  the  best  man  we 
have  sent  out.  He  failed  to  make  anything  of 
that  field.  If  you  follow  him  you  must  be  pre- 
pared to  move  from  the  field  any  day."  But, 
as  this  young  man  pondered  and  prayed  over 
the  church's  call,  he  felt  that  God  wanted  him 
to  succeed  that  man,  so  he  sent  his  acceptance, 
and  his  ministry  there  was  a  succession  of  tri- 
umphs for  nearly  six  years.  Now  this  man  had 
been  denied  many  of  the  advantages  the  other 
man  had  had,  but  he  had  one  outstanding  ad- 
vantage for  the  work  over  the  other  man — he 
could  use  the  tools  in  his  hand. 

[29] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


Without  minimizing  the  value  of  the  training 
of  the  schools,  without  encouraging  any  man  to 
drop  his  study  of  science,  philosophy,  Latin, 
Hebrew  or  Greek,  let  me  remind  you  that  some 
of  the  most  powerful  and  outstanding  ministers 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  history  of  the  nineteenth 
and  twentieth  century  Church  have  been  men 
who  from  the  standpoint  of  the  schools  had  only 
a  jackknife  with  which  to  do  their  work.  Prob- 
ably one  of  the  most  interesting  figures  in  the 
development  of  American  history  is  the  circuit 
rider  of  the  Methodist  Church.  This  man  was 
chosen  by  the  people  for  his  work,  first,  because 
he  had  *'  experienced "  religion ;  and  second, 
because  he  had  a  gift  of  expressing  that  expe- 
rience to  the  class  meeting  and  the  camp  meet- 
ings and  the  meetings  held  in  the  settler's 
houses.  Then  the  presiding  elder  found  him  out 
and  set  him  to  work  ministering  to  the  small 
rural  districts  needing  the  message,  which  had 
no  better  equipped  men  for  the  work.  So, 
astride  of  his  horse,  with  his  saddlebag  library 
behind  him,  he  went  forth  with  no  school  to 
sharpen  his  countenance,  save  only  the  face  of 
a  friend.     Some  noble  servants,  great  preachers, 

[30] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


fearless  prophets  and  powerful  evangelists  were 
found  amongst  these  men.  Peter  Cartwright 
was  a  notable  circuit  rider  in  Kentucky  and 
Illinois.  Under  his  preaching,  sin  was  rebuked, 
sinners  were  converted  and  multitudes  were  led 
into  an  experience  of  the  power  of  God  to  save 
the  lost. 

I  am  reminded,  as  I  write,  of  a  man  used  of 
God  so  marvelously  in  the  last  half  of  the  last 
century,  that  his  name  will  never  be  forgotten 
in  America,  England  and  Scotland,  for  the  sav- 
ing of  sinners  and  the  awakening  of  the  Church, 
who  never  saw  the  inside  of  a  college  until  he 
began  to  establish  colleges  for  young  men  and 
women  in  a  like  situation  with  himself.  The 
ministers  of  all  these  lands  have  sat  at  the  feet 
of  Dwight  L.  Moody,  to  learn  how  to  use  their 
man-made  tools  and  the  sword  of  the  Spirit, 
which  is  the  Word  of  God. 

A  thing  has  happened  which  has  never  hap- 
pened before  in  the  history  of  the  world.  A 
man  who  knows  next  to  nothing  about  the 
methods  and  atmosphere  of  the  classroom  of 
the  schools,  who  violates  all  the  principles  of 
the  homiletic  art  and  insults  the  proprieties  of 

[31] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


the  preaching  profession  according  to  the 
schools,  has,  nevertheless,  preached  to  sixty- 
thousand  people  in  a  day  and  seen  tens  of  thou- 
sands fall  under  his  powerful  dramatic  utterance 
of  the  truth.  Billy  Sunday  believes  in  and 
preaches  the  oldest  and  most  **  traditional " 
doctrines  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments — the  Word  of  God. 

Fred,  don't  depend  on  the  schooling  you  re- 
ceived nor  too  greatly  magnify  the  instruments 
it  placed  in  your  hands.  Don't  buy  too  many 
books.  Know  what  you  do  buy  and  **  cut  a 
channel"  from  your  reading  to  your  work. 
Read,  read,  by  all  means  ;  get  all  you  can  from 
the  books,  but  be  sure  to  think  far  more  than 
you  read.  Gather  sweetened  water  from  every 
flower  in  the  field,  but  remember  Jefferson's  ob- 
servation on  honey  and  the  bee,  and  be  sure  to 
squeeze  something  of  your  own  personality  into 
all  that  you  gather  from  these  broad  and  beau- 
tiful pastures. 

Personality — that  is  the  principal  thing  in 
the  human  elements  of  a  ministry  triumphant. 
If  you  want  to  get  clearly  before  you  the  figure 
of  one  whom  you  do  not  want  to  be  like,  read 

[32] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


George  Eliot.  Almost  any  minister  she  pre- 
sents will  do,  for  she  seems  never  to  have  met 
any  but  nobodies.  I  am  thinking  of  her 
Mr.  Casaubon  in  ''  Middlemarch,"  v^hose  per- 
sonality was  so  dry  and  worthless  that  it  makes 
a  man  angry  to  think  such  dust  could  ever  be 
found  in  our  profession,  in  fiction  or  real  Hfe.  I 
am  thinking  of  that  dear,  heroic,  inconsequential, 
beautiful  bookworm,  old  Mr.  Lyon,  in  "  Felix 
Holt,"  and  I  don't  know  of  any  man  who,  in 
these  modern  days,  feels  it  possible  for  persons 
like  him  to  be  triumphant  ministers  in  any  time 
or  place.  Some  of  our  recent  novelists  have 
done  well  in  trying  to  present  ministers  of 
forceful  personality  in  their  books  ;  but  most  of 
them  have  so  limited  them  in  one  way  or  an- 
other that  I  cannot  believe  they  will  live  for  any 
considerable  time  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  the 
busy,  sinning,  dying  world  as  triumphant  men. 
They  were  not  big  enough. 

Before  I  leave  this  subject  I  must  speak  of 
one  figure  in  fiction  that  looms  up  before  me  as 
a  man  worth  knowing,  whether  you  meet  him 
in  books  or  real  life,  and  that  is  "  Rev.  James 
Harden,    M.   A.,   who  was  educated  at  Cam- 

[33] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


bridge  ;  threw  up  all  his  prospects  when  he  be- 
came convinced  of  sin  ;  cast  in  his  lot  with  the 
Independents  and  wrestled  even  unto  blood 
with  the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil  in  Cow- 
fold  for  thirty  years  till  he  was  gathered  to  his 
rest."  That  is  the  man  we  like  to  meet ;  and 
we  shall  be  everlastingly  grateful  to  Claudius 
Clear  for  introducing  us  to  Mark  Rutherford, 
and  to  Mark  Rutherford,  a  Unitarian,  for  this 
introduction  to  that  Evangelical  Independent 
minister,  James  Harden,  Master  of  Arts.  He  is 
a  personality,  in  league  with  the  Personality  of 
the  ages,  Jesus  called  Christ.  And  after  all,  that 
is  the  great  equipment  for  a  triumphant  min- 
istry. Now  a  man  who  is  really  this,  a  person, 
is,  in  a  way,  distinguished  at  the  start.  What- 
ever comes  to  him  and  passes  through  him  is 
new  when  it  leaves  him.  When  he  goes  to  his 
study  and  begins  to  read,  there  is  a  fine  bit  of 
mental  and  spiritual  metabolism  taking  place 
all  the  while.  When  he  comes  out,  however 
poorly  his  memory  may  work  in  any  attempt  at 
a  quotation  of  the  poets,  or  philosophers,  or 
scientists,  nevertheless  you  know  he  has  been 
with  them  and  learned  of  them. 

[34] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


There  are  some  outstanding  personalities  like 
this  in  the  recent  past  and  present  day.  Let 
me  mention  two.  Beecher  is  the  first.  The 
success  of  this  man  is  wholly  described  in  this 
one  word — personality.  He  went  out  to  his 
garden  or  farm  or  orchard  and  came  back  with 
loads  of  precious  fruit  to  lay  on  the  table  at 
Plymouth  Church  the  following  Sunday.  He 
went  into  his  study  and  read  ;  he  read  his  his- 
tories, then  returned  to  describe  the  movements 
of  God  through  the  centuries  ;  he  read  his 
poets,  and  returned  laden  with  flowers  whose 
sweet  perfume  filled  the  room ;  he  read  his 
dramatists,  and  returned  to  dramatize  the  truth 
so  wondrously,  that  men,  conscious  of  its  reality, 
laughed  and  cried  ;  he  read  his  philosophers  and 
then  stood  before  the  people  to  plead  the  cause 
of  God  and  men  in  such  a  fashion  that  his 
audience  rose  to  do  valiant  deeds  for  them. 
Yet  Beecher's  verbal  memory  w^as  so  poor  that 
he  scarcely  ever  attempted  to  quote  what  other 
men  had  said.  But  through  the  long  years  of 
his  ministry  he  stood  two,  three  or  more  times 
each  week  on  a  public  platform  or  pulpit  in  the 
metropolis  of  this  land,  and  brought  a  message 


[35] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


as  fresh  and  new  as  the  morning.  There  are 
many  who  have  tried  to  tell  us  the  secret  of  the 
power  of  this  man,  but  nothing  sums  it  up  bet- 
ter for  me  than  personality  :  the  expression  of 
the  moral,  and  if  you  will  allow  me  to  say,  the 
aesthetic  and  intellectual  order  of  the  world 
through  an  individual. 

The  other  man  who  can  gather  and  change 
the  world  and  history  and  science,  especially, 
into  food  for  the  heart  and  mind,  is  that  remark- 
able Wesleyan  Methodist  preacher  and  saint, 
William  L.  Watkinson.  Of  his  many  books  I 
commend  to  you  one,  for  a  study  of  personality 
in  its  preaching  function — "  The  Duty  of  Im- 
perial Thinking."  This  book  is  a  series  of 
"  sermonettes "  (I  call  them  that  for  their 
brevity).  It  has  been  some  years  since  I  read 
this  book  but  as  I  remember  it,  each  chapter  is 
an  exposition  of  some  great  text  in  Scripture 
illustrated  from  a  well-known  scientific  fact  or 
recent  discovery.  Some  of  the  titles  are 
''  Ashes  of  Roses,"  ''  The  Poles  of  the  Moral 
Order,"  "The  Charmed  Life  of  the  Frail," 
*'  Plowing  the  Sands,"  *'  The  Efficacy  of  Joy," 
**  The  Devil's  Riddle,"  ''  The  Implied  Promise 


[36] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


of  Nature  and  Life."  Besides  these  there  are 
forty-six  other  sermonettes  in  this  book,  the  tides 
to  which  are  an  index  to  the  great  personality 
who  pours  himself  out  in  the  message  he  brings 
from  the  Bible  and  the  world  of  science,  through 
which  he  daily  roams  in  search  of  inspiration 
and  strength.  He  speaks  not  more  than  forty 
words  a  minute,  I  should  say,  but  I  have  seen  a 
huge  audience  greet  him  day  after  day  and 
crowd  up  to  the  platform  steps  for  seats  to  hear 
what  God  had  to  say  to  them  through  him. 

Personality  is  always  so  much  greater  than 
the  message  it  consciously  and  purposely  utters, 
that  there  is  an  overplus  of  virtue,  of  life,  ac- 
companying all  the  attempted  output.  The 
message  prepared  for  the  pulpit  is  an  expression 
of  all  the  experience  of  the  week  as  the  minister 
has  touched  the  four  corners  of  his  parish  and 
the  world.  The  old  woman  that  he  visited  ;  the 
anxious  and  loving  mother  after  whose  son  he 
inquired  ;  the  man  with  whom  he  counseled  be- 
hind a  locked  door  ;  the  poor  sinner  that  poured 
the  tale  of  sin  and  failure  into  his  ear  ;  the 
strong,  valiant  man  with  whom  he  conspired  for 
human  good — all  these  are  conscious  of  the  con- 

[37] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


tribution  which  they  made  to  that  sermon,  along 
with  the  masters  of  the  world  from  whom  he 
gleaned,  though  not  one  of  them  could  lay  his 
finger  on  a  single  word  and  call  it  his  own. 
When  it  got  back  to  them  it  was  new. 

Now  a  man  like  this  is  not  interested  in  those 
much-advertised  magazines  and  books  of  ser- 
mons and  texts  ready-made  to  suit  a  thousand 
occasions.  Our  man  with  a  personality  does 
not  wear  secondhand  clothes  nor  "  hand-me- 
down"  garments  for  the  mind.  He  has  no 
trouble  in  finding  themes  upon  which  to  preach. 
He  has  such  a  fund  of  subjects  on  hand,  crowd- 
ing for  expression,  that  he  lacks  time  and 
strength  and  utterance  to  get  them  a  chance  to 
be  heard.  He  is  never  preached  out.  He 
grows  richer  and  fuller  with  the  years.  His 
parishioners  speak  of  him  as  a  man  of  ever-in- 
creasing usefulness  in  their  midst.  They  know 
there  is  something  in  this  man  that  makes  it 
impossible  to  forecast  the  message  for  the  com- 
ing week.  They  do  not  know  who  or  what 
will  touch  him  between  Sundays,  but  they  know 
that  in  any  event  he  will  be  a  new  man  on  the 
coming  day. 

[38] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


In  the  ministry  as  in  every  great  field,  as  Dr. 
Van  Dyke  said  in  "  The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of 
Doubt,"  '*  life  is  now  the  regnant  idea  ;  person- 
ality its  utmost  expression."  **  Persons  are  the 
most  potent  factor  of  progress  and  change  in 
history,"  said  Fairbairn,  "and the  greatest  per- 
son known  to  it  is  the  one  who  has  been  the 
most  powerful  factor  in  ordered  progress." 

Yes,  my  dear  Fred,  that  is  the  secret  of  the 
triumph  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the 
expression  of  Personality — the  divine  Person- 
ality. And  if  that  gospel  gets  half  a  chance  to 
express  itself  in  and  through  the  personality  of 
a  man  with  a  gift  for  telling  what  he  has  learned 
from  fellowship  with  Christ,  there  will  be  tri- 
umphs all  along  the  way. 

But  I  should  not  give  you  a  sufficient  word 
unless  I  should  write  something  on  the  secret  of 
vitalizing,  charging  or  developing  the  person- 
ality and  of  our  access  to  power  outside  of 
ourselves.  Within  a  year  or  two,  three  men 
who  love  ministers  and  who  ought  to  know, 
have  said  to  me  that  many  ministers  are  not 
''  equal  to  their  job»"  Two  of  them  were  field 
secretaries  of  two  of  our  church  boards  and  the 

[39] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


third  was  a  live,  wide-awake,  energetic  mission- 
ary from  India  who  is  *'  doing  things  "  out  there 
for  God  and  men.  These  three  men  were  go- 
ing all  over  the  country  and  claimed  to  be  meet- 
ing ministers  and  churches  everywhere  and 
hearing  *'  both  sides  "  of  a  restless  Church.  In 
a  letter  recently  received  from  the  editor  of  the 
most  widely  read  church  paper  in  our  denomi- 
nation, the  declaration  is  made  that  it  is  very 
difficult  to  find  men  equal  to  the  task  which  our 
large  city  churches  have  to  face.  I  have  a 
large  acquaintance  amongst  the  ministers  of 
our  church,  and  I  have  not  felt  that  on  the 
whole  they  were  any  more  unequal  to  their  task 
than  are  the  men  of  the  churches  to  which  they 
minister.  But  if  there  is  any  failure  on  the 
part  of  ministers  to  be  equal  to  the  task  which 
they  and  the  Church  are  facing  to-day,  it  can, 
in  my  humble  judgment,  be  accounted  for  in 
the  fact  that  they  have  lost  their  key  to  the 
closet  door. 

Now,  Fred,  there  are  just  two  things  to  re- 
member about  the  closet  with  the  door.  In  the 
first  place,  it  is  appointed  by  Christ.  In  the 
second  place,  it  is  for  us  the  trysting  place  of 

[40] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


power.  There  is  one  thing  you  and  I  can  never 
forget — the  prayer  band  that  used  to  meet  in 
my  study  on  Saturday  night  and  the  resuks. 
You  remember  those  eleven  names  we  had  on 
our  Hst  for  a  number  of  months,  and  how  nine 
of  them  confessed  Christ  with  scarcely  a  word 
spoken  to  them  by  any  one  of  us.  In  answer 
to  our  prayers  God  brought  those  men  into  the 
kingdom  of  Christ.  The  ministry  of  interces- 
sion is  a  ministry  from  which  no  soul  can  be  cut 
off  by  outward  events.  And  it  is  the  most  effi- 
cient ministry  a  man  can  offer.  No  ministry  is 
more  needed  in  these  times. 

Men  and  circumstances  we  could  never  reach 
by  direct  approach  can  be  reached  from  the 
closet  with  the  closed  door.  I  am  in  receipt  of 
a  letter  that  tells  me  how  this  has  been  done  in 
the  life  of  a  friend.  He  wrote  me  two  months 
ago  of  his  perplexity  and  distress  and  how  every 
way  which  he  had  tried  had  failed.  In  reply  I 
declared  my  belief  in  the  power  at  our  disposal 
by  way  of  the  closet  with  the  closed  door.  We 
entered  it  together,  he  in  a  city  far  away,  I  in 
my  own  place.  This  letter  tells  that  six  weeks 
ago  things  began  to  change  and  that  now  the 

[41] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


work  has  reached  such  a  stage  of  success  that 
his  hope  is  firm  and  his  heart  filled  with  cheer. 
Take  a  new  look  at  Mark  ii  :  24.  It  is  the 
pledge  for  your  communion  in  the  closet  with 
the  closed  door.  Here  also  men  get  what  the 
schools  could  not  successfully  give — access  of 
power  in  the  terms  of  personality.  Personality 
is  something  that  culture  cannot  give.  Culture 
can  only  improve  what  nature  brings  to  its 
school.  But  I  am  sure  that  with  the  closed 
door,  there  is  a  change  in  the  Hfe  elements  of 
the  men  who  resort  to  the  closet.  Something  is 
added  which  nature  and  the  schools  and  world 
experience  cannot  give. 

You  know,  Fred,  that  to  enter  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  you  must  be  born  again — not  educated 
or  reformed  or  given  changed  environment,  but 
born  again.  Now  we  know  that  this  means 
more  than  outward  change.  It  means  new  life. 
Hence  the  possibility  of  change  in  the  seat  of 
personality,  even.  Even  the  men  whose  lack 
of  equipment  for  service  in  the  ministry  was 
personality  itself,  may  hope  for  change  to  be 
made  in  them,  at  the  very  seat  of  life. 

Whatever  men  may  say,  I  know  that  in  the 

[42] 


THE    EQUIPMENT 


closet  with  the  closed  door  there  are  the  secrets 
of  life.  Men  who  have  gone  in  there  daily 
have  come  out  with  faces  that  shine,  with 
visions  that  inspire  those  to  whom  they  give  the 
good  news,  and  with  power  to  remove  moun- 
tains into  the  midst  of  the  sea. 

Since  my  last  letter  you  have  left  us  in  the 
country  and  have  gone  into  the  great  city's  life. 
Remember  what  the  psalmist  said  about  what 
he  had  seen  there  :  "  I  have  seen  violence  and 
strife  in  the  city.  Day  and  night  they  go  about 
it  upon  the  walls  thereof :  mischief  also  and  sor- 
row are  in  the  midst  of  it.  Wickedness  is  in  the 
midst  thereof :  deceit  and  guile  depart  not  from 
her  streets." 

In  the  face  of  circumstances  like  that,  what  is 
the  chance  for  a  man  of  peace,  with  a  message 
against  sin?  Much,  in  every  way,  if  he  draw 
on  the  source  of  power.  He  will  not  fail  if  he 
keep  the  path  worn  to  the  closet  with  the  closed 
door. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Timothy  Kilbourn. 


[43] 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  TAX 

Dear  Fred  : 

You  write  of  a  **  hard  week."  I  am 
glad  you  have  them.  I  hope  you  make  each 
week  a  hard  week.  Dr.  Forsyth  said :  **  It  is 
the  demands,  not  the  promises,  that  make  men 
of  us,  the  responsibilities,  not  the  enjoyments, 
that  raise  us  to  the  stature  of  men.'* 

No  ministry  is  triumphant  without  tax.  But, 
if  a  man  is  disposed  to  take  life  easily,  the  min- 
istry offers  him  a  chance  with  many  advantages. 
He  can  be  assured  of  a  living  of  some  sort  from 
the  start.  He  will  be  treated  with  considerable 
respect,  by  a  large  part  of  the  community,  down 
to  the  end  of  the  day,  because  he  is  a  minister. 
He  will  be  indulged  by  many  pious  people,  who 
hope  and  pray  for  a  day  of  awakening,  but  who 
are  too  diffident  to  prod  toward  this  end  "  the 
Lord's  anointed."  Unfortunately  for  the  min- 
ister, he  has  no  monitor  to  arrange  his  schedule 

[44] 


THE    TAX 


and  keep  him  up  to  it,  outside  himself — unless 
it  be  his  wife.  But,  usually,  birds  of  a  feather 
flock  together,  and  she  is  either  of  a  slattern 
mind  Hke  her  husband,  or  of  that  adoring  sort 
that  worships  her  lord.  She  may  be  of  that  de- 
ceived number  who  imagine  that  their  husbands 
are  victims  of  overwork. 

Many  people  support  the  minister  as  a 
charity  ;  and  their  interest  is  not  critical  or 
constructive.  They  expect  no  reckoning. 
Charities  should  not  be  held  too  strictly  to 
account.  Besides,  it  takes  too  much  time. 
Their  minister,  knowing  that  this  is  their  view, 
and  having  no  burning  zeal  or  alluring  vision 
other  than  his  personal  comfort  and  ease,  ac- 
cepts the  situation  and  lives  up  to  it.  With 
no  one  to  drive  him  to  his  work,  he  lounges 
through  the  week.  Possibly,  on  the  last  day, 
or  the  last  two  days,  the  approaching  publicity 
of  the  Sabbath  begins  to  bear  down  upon  his 
mind  and  he  gives  himself  with  great  vehe- 
mence to  getting  ready  for  the  event  or  events. 
And  when  it  is  done  he  is  so  taxed  by  his  effort 
to  bring  forth  something  out  of  nothing,  that 
he  imagines  himself  a  sadly  overworked  man. 


[45] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


Like  Rev.  John  Broad,  minister  at  Tanner's 
Lane  in  Cowfold,  antitype  of  Rev.  James 
Harden,  M.  A.,  of  wliom  I  spoke  in  my  last 
letter  to  you,  the  minister  who  would  avoid 
ministerial  tax  will  be  exhausted  in  digesting 
the  food  he  eats.  Mr.  Broad  '*  was  not  of  the 
revival  type.  He  was  moderate  in  all  of  what 
he  called  his  *  views,'  neither  ultra-Calvinist 
nor  Arminian  ;  not  rigid  upon  Baptism."  A 
man  who  *'  very  much  preferred  the  indirect 
method  of  doing  good  and  if  he  thought  a 
brother  had  done  wrong,  contented  himself 
with  praying  in  private  for  him.  He  was  not, 
however,  a  hypocrite,  that  is  to  say,  not  an 
ordinary  novel  or  stage  hypocrite.  He  could 
not  doubt,  for  doubt  was  not  in  the  air ;  .  .  . 
Nor  was  Mr.  Broad  a  criminal  in  any  sense. 
He  was  upright,  on  the  whole,  in  all  his 
transactions,  although  a  little  greedy  and 
hard,  people  thought.  .  .  .  Another  rec- 
ommendation was  that  he  was  temperate  in 
his  drink.  He  was  not  so  in  his  meat.  Supper 
was  his  great  meal,  and  he  would  then  con- 
sume beef,  ham  or  sausage,  hot  potatoes, 
mixed   pickles,    fruit   pies,   bread,    cheese   and 

[46] 


THE    TAX 


celery,  in  quantities  which  were  remarlcable 
even  in  those  days  ;  but  he  never  drank  any- 
thing but  beer — a  pint  at  dinner  and  a  pint  at 
supper." 

Now  the  picture  is  bold  and  would  not  be 
true  to  the  average  minister  who  has  an  easy 
life,  a  life  without  tax,  in  the  ministry  of  to-day. 
But  it  is  a  faithful  portrait  of  what  a  man  may 
become  who  finds  the  ministry  an  opportunity 
to  lie  down  on  the  obligation  to  work. 

But  I  am  not  writing  to  you  about  Rev.  John 
Broad  and  his  ilk  because  I  fear  you  may  fall 
into  his  class.  My  message  to  you  is  inspired 
by  what  I  know  you  want  to  be — a  useful  man, 
a  faithful  servant  for  Jesus  Christ,  who  studies 
to  show  himself  approved  unto  God,  rightly 
dividing  the  word  of  truth. 

The  tax  of  the  ministry  to-day  surpasses  the 
tax  of  any  previous  age.  There  never  was  an 
age  when  so  much  work  was  laid  at  the  min- 
ister's feet  for  him  to  do  as  now.  There  never 
was  an  age  when  the  circumstances  amidst 
which  he  must  do  it  were  more  unfavorable. 
The  pressure  that  is  being  put  upon  us  calls 
for  a  clear  understanding  of  our  work  and  our 

[47] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


commission.  We  must  sooner  or  later  give 
the  world  a  new  definition  of  our  task,  a  new 
vision  of  our  calling.  We  must  get  a  new 
emphasis  for  ourselves.  In  every  line  of  hu- 
man activity  there  has  been  a  tendency  toward 
specialization,  except  in  the  ministry  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  will  not  undertake 
to  illustrate  this  statement  from  the  many  pro- 
fessions and  businesses  offering  examples,  but 
I  simply  call  your  attention  to  specialization  in 
one  department  of  Christian  life  and  work. 
There  is  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  an  institution  so 
efficient  and  special  that  it  has  supplanted  the 
Church  in  the  judgment  of  many  business 
men  who  give  their  substance  for  prosecuting 
Christ's  work.  In  our  county  town  of  twenty- 
three  thousand  inhabitants,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
building  will  accommodate  forty  men  with 
rooms,  fifteen  hundred  members  with  pleas- 
ure, opportunity  for  exercise,  fellowship  and 
training  of  body  and  mind.  The  following 
paid  workers  are  always  on  the  job — a  general 
secretary,  assistant  secretary,  membership  sec- 
retary, boy's  secretary  and  physical  director. 
No  one  of  these  secretaries  attempts  to  do  the 

[48] 


THE    TAX 


regular  work  of  addressing  die  meetings  on 
Sunday  afternoons.  None  of  them  do  any 
teaching  except  one  Bible  class  each  week  and 
when  necessity  calls  them  through  the  failure 
of  regular  teachers,  who  are  provided  for 
the  class  work.  They  do  not  duplicate  one 
another's  work  in  any  way.  Whatever  work 
they  do  is  done  with  the  idea  of  reaching  a 
man  for  accumulative  effect. 

There  are  also  in  this  little  city  about  thirty 
churches.  Seven  of  these  churches  are  not 
more  than  six  blocks  from  that  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
building.  In  each  of  these  one  man  is  expected 
to  do,  and  is  trying  to  do,  the  work  that  those 
five  men  are  doing,  or  are  trying  to  do,  in  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  in  buildings  only  one  of  which 
approaches  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  modern  improve- 
ments. What  is  the  result  ?  Are  any  of  these 
men  succeeding?  Yes,  some  of  them  very 
well.  All  of  them  more  or  less.  But  every 
man  of  them  has  faced  at  some  time  in  the 
course  of  five  or  six  years  the  restless  Church. 
This  resdessness  is,  in  a  large  measure,  ac- 
counted for  by  the  fact  that  so  much  is  expected 
of  the  minister  which  he  cannot  reasonably  be 

[49] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


expected  to  do.  The  reason  so  many  men  are 
not  *'  big  enough  for  their  job  "  in  the  ministry, 
lies  in  the  fact  that  their  job  is  really  the  work 
of  four  or  five  men.  Before  he  knows  it,  the 
best  man  will  be  tempted  to  waste  time  and 
energy  on  the  urgent  and  seemingly  important, 
or  imperative,  claims  on  his  attention,  which, 
after  all,  turn  out  to  be  unimportant,  when 
compared  to  the  main  business  of  his  life. 
Some  of  the  best  ministers  in  this  land  have 
made  a  heroic  effort  to  meet  the  situation,  to  do 
everything  demanded  of  them,  and  have  failed. 
They  have  planned  the  parish  work  and  tried, 
in  the  best  way  they  know  how,  to  set  everyone 
to  work  ;  they  call  on  the  troubled,  the  new 
arrivals  and  the  sick ;  they  teach  the  men's 
Bible  class  or  some  other  class  in  the  Sunday 
school ;  sometimes  they  lead  the  singing  and 
look  out  for  the  teaching  force  from  week  to 
week  ;  they  attempt  to  meet  the  public  demands 
on  them  to  shepherd  the  flock,  that  is,  to  feed 
the  sheep,  frolic  with  the  lambs  and  find  pastures 
and  playgrounds  that  are  new  and  green  for  all 
of  them.  These  wonderful  men  do  all  this  for 
their  own,  and  then  go  out  into  the  community 

[50] 


THE    TAX 


to  do  the  same  for  the  town,  the  county,  the 
State  and  the  Church  at  large.  Then  they  go 
back  to  their  homes  to  study, — and  to  hear 
what  the  still  small  voice  would  say  !  And  too 
frequently  they  don't  catch  it  because  the  Elijah 
conditions  are  not  present.  With  the  prophet, 
when  the  thunder  and  the  storm  had  passed  he 
had  a  chance  to  hear  ;  but  with  the  rattle  of  the 
street  outside  and  the  telephone  bell  inside, 
when  does  the  man  of  to-day  get  a  chance  to 
hear  ? 

Now  where  are  we  going  to  begin,  my  friend, 
to  get  the  mastery  of  this  tax  that  spells  failure 
for  the  average  man?  Oh,  yes,  I  know  what 
you  will  say — look  at  John  Timothy  Stone,  and 
J.  H.  Jowett,  and  S.  Parkes  Cadman,  and  Russell 
H.  Conwell,  and  a  host  of  other  great  and  good 
men  who  do  wonderful  things.  But  I  venture 
to  say  these  men  gained  a  mastery  by  doing  in 
the  beginning  what  I  am  going  to  propose  to 
you — and  that  is  this  : 

Remember  you  cannot  do  everything.  Re- 
member that  you  have  been  set  to  feed  and 
tend  Christ's  flock— the  lambs  and  the  sheep. 
The  important  thing  in  such  a  tending  is  first 

[51] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


to  feed,  second  to  guard,  third  to  seek  out  the 
strayed  and  lost.  I  venture  to  say,  Fred,  if  you 
will  confine  yourself  to  this,  you  will  not  fail,  and 
you  will  be  taxed,  and  you  will  be  triumphant. 

But  a  man  cannot  feed  the  sheep  unless  he 
prepares  to  feed  them.  The  subjection  of  the 
whole  life  to  this  business  of  preparation  to  feed 
the  sheep  is  imperative  upon  the  minister.  He 
must  know  the  green  pastures  and  the  still 
waters.  He  must  take  the  walk  beforehand  if 
he  would  lead  them  on  Sunday  into  the  places 
where  their  souls  can  be  regaled.  The  mastery 
and  discipline  of  tax,  therefore,  begins  right 
here  at  the  study  in  the  manse. 

Let  it  be  the  best  room  in  the  house  for  air 
and  light  and  heat.  If  there  is  any  room  in  the 
house  that  has  outlook — with  a  fine  sweep 
across  the  hills  or  the  river  or  the  lake  or  the 
sea — let  us  pray  that  it  may  be  this  room  which 
has  the  best  air  and  light  and  heat.  In  my 
second  parish  they  built  a  room  large  and  light, 
and  with  a  sweep  across  the  lake  and  the  land- 
scape miles  and  miles  away,  while  just  near  was 
a  quiet  spur  of  the  hill  to  which  I  might  go  and 
look  out  and  away  over  lake  and  land  as  far  as 

[52] 


THE    TAX 


the  eye  would  reach.  And  that  helps  a  man  to 
see  things  in  a  grand  way.  One  afternoon 
from  that  hilltop  I  saw  something  I  shall  never 
forget.  The  city  lay  in  the  distance.  While  I 
marked  the  great,  tall  buildings,  black  against 
the  fields,  and  the  windows  reflecting  the  light 
of  declining  day,  a  cloud,  flung  across  the  sky, 
shut  out  the  sun.  With  the  exception  of  the  dim 
shadow  of  the  great,  huge  buildings  rising  high 
toward  the  sky,  the  city  was  immediately  lost  to 
view.  While  I  thought  on  the  scene,  and  how 
many  a  prospect  in  life  is  spoiled  by  the  clouds 
that  shut  out  the  light,  behold,  there  was  a  rift 
in  the  cloud,  and  the  sun  shot  his  rays  across 
the  background  of  that  dark  scene,  and  while 
the  city  was  still  under  the  cloud  there  were 
radiant  and  beautiful  prospects  beyond. 

Now,  Fred,  choose  a  room,  or  get  a  hilltop, 
where  you  can  get  a  prospect  like  that  if  it  is  in 
or  near  your  house.  It  is  like  Beulah  Land  to 
the  man  who  must  go  within  an  hour,  or  a  day, 
to  feed  the  flock. 

When  you  have  the  room  with  the  air,  the 
heat  and  the  light,  go  to  it  on  the  hour.  I 
do  not  say  you  should  go  when  I  go,  or  leave 

[53] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


when  I  leave.  My  plan  is  to  have  a  schedule 
from  6  A.  M.  until  lo  P.  M.  There  is  scarcely 
one  day  in  seven  that  I  follow  that  schedule  un- 
interruptedly to  the  end.  But  it  makes  provi- 
sion for  hard  study  in  the  Hebrew  and  the 
Greek  of  the  original  text,  though  I  never  pos- 
sessed any  facility  in  language  work.  It  has  a 
place  for  daily  reading  of  a  stiff  sort,  and  for 
lighter  reading  and  for  play.  And  though  I 
seldom  get  a  chance  from  six  in  the  morning 
until  ten  at  night  to  follow  the  schedule  com- 
pletely, I  am  never  in  the  position  of  the  man 
who  does  not  know  what  to  do  next.  If  inter- 
ruptions come  and  spoil  my  attention  for  a 
while,  when  they  pass  I  can  get  right  down  to 
business  again  by  observing  on  the  schedule 
what  comes  next. 

Before  I  leave  the  study  there  are  two  things 
I  want  to  say.  Look  hard  at  the  schedule  from 
6  to  9  A.  M.  A  long  while  ago  I  determined  to 
read  nothing  until  I  had  read  the  Book.  Now 
to  that  vow  has  been  added  the  time  for  prayer. 
Your  ministry  of  intercession  can  be  practiced 
at  this  hour.  And  it  is  the  best  hour  of  the 
day.     Enter  the  closet  with  the  closed  door  in 

[54] 


THE    TAX 


the  morning-.  I  say  nothing  about  how  to  read 
or  work.  You  ought  to  have  mastered  any 
disposition  to  intellectual  lounging  or  laziness 
long  before  you  left  the  college  campus  or  the 
professional  school.  But  above  everything  let 
me  urge  you  never  to  lose  the  habit  of  ''  boning 
down  to  hard  work  "  in  the  study. 

The  Scriptures  are  the  Word  of  God  and  the 
way  is  so  plain  that  the  wayfaring  man,  though 
a  simpleton,  need  not  err  therein  ;  but  they  place 
no  premium  on  simpletons  in  the  pulpit.  "  The 
trouble  with  many  of  us  is  just  this — we  come 
to  our  work  from  low  levels,  from  the  common 
angle,  with  the  ordinary  point  of  view."  Do 
some  "  mountain  climbing,"  Fred,  and  get  on 
the  heights.  Do  most  of  your  climbing  on  your 
knees  in  the  study.  Let  the  study  be  the  scene 
of  long  hours,  kept  jealously  for  the  Company 
you  can  get  there,  and  for  hard  toil  in  prepara- 
tion to  feed  the  flock. 

But  you  must  leave  the  study,  if  you  are  to 
be  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  get  out  amidst 
the  flock.  The  sheep  must  know  the  shepherd, 
else  his  voice  will  sound  like  that  of  a  stranger. 

[55] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


And  a  stranger's  voice  they  will  not  follow. 
Now  that  is  particularly  true  of  the  lambs  and 
the  young  sheep.  They  must  hear  your  voice 
in  their  homes  or  school  or  on  the  street,  where 
you  can  call  them  by  name  and  give  them  the 
attention  which  each  individual,  big,  little,  old 
and  young,  delights  to  receive.  To  do  this  it 
is  not  necessary  that  you  be  frequently  in  these 
familiar  places  with  each  one  ;  but  if  it  is  the 
record  you  make  each  week  with  some  of  them, 
you  keep  the  touch  of  sympathy  and  tone  that 
makes  them  believe  you  are  akin. 

Probably  no  work  a  minister  has  to  do  is 
more  futile  than  his  pastoral  work  when  done  in 
the  usual  way.  To  run  up  and  down  the  street, 
pushing  buttons  on  the  posts  of  doors  where 
people  live  and  when  admitted  frittering  your 
time  away  in  futile  remarks  about  the  weather, 
or  some  topic  in  which  there  is  no  heart  or  soul, 
is  usually  a  sinful  waste  of  time.  I  suppose 
that  it  has  to  be  done  sometimes,  but  be  sure 
necessity  is  laid  upon  you  when  you  do  such 
things.  To  visit  all  the  women  in  your  parish 
when  the  men  are  at  work  and  the  children  are 
at  school  is  to  put  in  your  time  usually  where 

[56] 


THE    TAX 


it  is  needed  the  least.  Women  in  the  average 
church  home  are  glad  to  hear  that  you  dropped 
into  the  office  for  a  chat  with  John,  or  that  you 
are  coming  in  the  evening  when  the  children 
are  at  home  ;  but  to  be  gadding  about  from 
door  to  door  in  afternoon  bell-ringing  and  per- 
functory calls,  gives  you  no  lift  in  their  esteem. 

And  when  you  go  down  on  the  street  be  sure 
that  you  do  not  lounge  or  loaf.  There  are  lots 
of  men  doing  that  at  the  pool  room,  and  the 
smokehouse,  and  the  news  stand,  and  they 
know  the  man  who  is  in  the  same  frame  of 
mind  as  their  own.  I  have  found  it  convenient, 
when  introduced  to  a  man,  to  find  out  in  some 
way  or  other  where  he  stands  in  relation  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Church  ;  and  if  the 
way  is  open,  I  do  business  for  Jesus  Christ  there 
and  then. 

I  make  it  my  business  to  book  engagements 
with  men  to  talk  about  their  personal  relation 
to  Christ  and  the  Church.  Day  before  yester- 
day my  duties  as  a  college  trustee  required  me 
to  sit  on  two  committees  for  three  or  four  hours, 
in  a  city  twenty-five  miles  away.  On  returning 
home   at    i  :  30  P.  M.,  business   led   me   to  the 

[57] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


bank.  In  the  queue  before  the  cashier's  win- 
dow was  a  man  I  have  been  ''  working  on  "  for 
three  years.  I  asked  him  to  give  me  a  few 
moments  aside  when  he  was  through  with  his 
business.  When  he  came  aside  and  took  my 
hand,  I  said :  *'  Friend,  the  communion  season 
is  a  week  from  Sunday.  Won't  you  decide  for 
Jesus  Christ  without  further  delay  ?  "  Taking 
my  hand  in  both  of  his,  he  said  :  *'  See  me 
again ;  I  promise  to  think  seriously  between 
now  and  then." 

I  left  him  to  visit  a  store  where  five  young 
women  who  attend  our  church  are  at  work. 
One  of  them  had  two  mates  in  the  Sunday 
school  and  she  took  me  to  talk  with  them. 
Both  of  them  decided  for  Christ  and  will  come 
into  the  Church.  Then  I  hastened  to  the  office 
of  a  young  lawyer  who,  three  weeks  ago,  ac- 
cepted Christ,  to  see  how  it  was  going  with 
him.  He  had  had  a  "  blue  night "  the  evening 
before.  In  his  private  office  I  counseled  and 
encouraged  him.  Then  to  my  barber  shop. 
As  I  went  out  one  of  the  proprietors  was  alone 
and  I  sat  on  the  bench  beside  him.  It  was  an 
opportune  time  and  for  fifty  minutes  I  talked  to 

[58] 


THE    TAX 


this  new  prospect  about  Christ — what  he  had 
done  for  me,  and  what  he  could  do  for  him. 

Yesterday  I  had  a  funeral.  After  it  was  over, 
I  had  to  visit  another  home  into  which  death 
had  stalked.  When  I  left  there  I  went  to  a 
factory  to  talk  about  Christ  to  the  proprietor. 
He  was  occupied,  but  his  daughter  at  the  desk, 
a  member  of  our  Sunday  school,  though  not  a 
Christian,  seemed  ready  for  my  approach,  so  I 
talked  to  her  and  she  decided  to  come  next  Sun- 
day morning  into  the  Church.  From  there  I 
went  to  a  large  manufactory  for  a  close  confer- 
ence with  one  of  the  proprietors  of  that  firm.  I 
waited  ten  minutes  for  him  ;  then  we  pulled  our 
chairs  together  and,  like  men,  talked  about 
Christ  and  what  we  owed  to  him.  When  we 
shook  hands,  I  did  not  have  his  surrender  to 
Christ,  but  he  thanked  me  for  the  visit  and  my 
interest  in  him. 

In  addition  to  cases  like  these  are  the  many 
to  whom  counsel  and  comfort  and  inspiration 
and  sympathy  must  be  ministered  by  the  way. 

We  have  between  five  and  six  hundred  mem- 
bers in  this  church  with  which  is  connected  a 
mission  where  my  assistant  is  at  work.     In  the 


[59] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


field  are  all  sorts,  classes  and  conditions  for  us 
to  meet  and  serve  ;  but  there  is  not  a  man  or 
woman,  boy  or  girl,  in  the  place  who  does  not 
believe  this  is  the  most  needed  and  best  ren- 
dered pastoral  work. 

*'Ye  are  witnesses,"  said  Christ.  "Ye  have 
not  chosen  me,  but  I  have  chosen  you,  and  or- 
dained you,  that  ye  should  go  and  bring  forth 
fruit,  and  that  your  fruit  should  remain."  And 
when  a  man  looks  at  that,  he  knows  the  terms 
of  the  commission  cannot  be  satisfied  in  weather 
comments  or  social  perfunctories  of  the  pink  tea 
sort.  There  is  no  triumph  for  any  man  on  such 
occasions.  Triumph  comes,  and  comes  only,  to 
the  men  who  are  besieging  the  citadel  of  Man 
Soul  and  receiving  a  surrender  of  that  famous 
castle  in  the  name  of  our  Lord. 

In  this  connection  I  have  said  nothing  about 
the  sweet  peace  and  inspiration  that  passes  into 
the  life  of  a  man  who  has  pastorally  ministered 
to  the  saints  of  God  who  are  shut  in  from  week 
to  week,  and  whose  quiet  rooms  are  places  of  pain 
and  sweet  repose.  I  have  not  mentioned  the 
glow  he  feels  when  those  who  have  failed  send 
for  him  to  come  in  haste.     I  have  said  nothing 

[60] 


THE    TAX 


of  the  joy  that  may  fill  his  heart  when  some  lad 
has  come  to  talk  out  with  him  plans  for  the 
coming  days.  But  when  his  schedule  has  been 
kept  filled  with  engagements  like  this,  he  knows 
he  has  a  message  that  will  meet  some  heart's 
need,  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

And  that  is  my  next  message  to  you — the 
tax  upon  you  the  first  day  of  the  week.  If  you 
have  done  wisely,  you  have  followed  the  advice 
of  Jefferson  and  rested  on  Saturday,  in  order 
that  you  may  be  fresh  for  your  tax  on  the  first 
day  of  the  week.  I  have  no  sympathy  with  the 
man  who  brings  the  smell  of  a  midnight  lamp 
to  the  pulpit  on  the  first  day  of  the  week ;  nor 
with  the  man  who  brings  the  redness  of  eye 
caused  by  late  hours  under  the  incandescent 
lamp  on  Saturday  night ;  nor  with  the  man  who 
brings  a  sermon  polished  and  pointed  and  bal- 
anced in  every  part  as  a  literary  triumph  for  the 
week.  The  need  of  the  people  is  not  a  literary 
gem,  cold  and  hard.  Neither  do  they  need  a 
treatise  on  literature,  philosophy,  or  art.  Neither 
do  they  want  a  discussion  of  social  service. 
What  the  people  want  in  the  pulpit  is  a  man 
who  is  a  medium  through  whom  God  himself 

[61] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


can  speak  to  them  and  through  whom  they  can 
reach  up  to  God.  The  pulpit  is  no  place  for 
platitudes  or  Platonism.  It  is  the  place  for 
pouring  out  the  heart  and  mind,  in  God- 
inspired  speech.  It  is  the  place  where  a  man, 
consumed  with  love  for  God  and  men,  ought  to 
glow  and  flame  with  the  story  that  never  grows 
old,  and  the  joy  that  cannot  be  told,  and  the 
hope  that  cannot  be  dimmed,  and  the  conviction 
that  cannot  be  chilled,  and  the  determination  to 
win  that  cannot  be  denied.  What  the  pulpit 
needs  to-day  and  every  day  is  triumphant  men, 
strong  men,  rejoicing  to  run  a  race.  It  is  the 
men  who  *'  joy  "  "  according  to  the  joy  in  har- 
vest, and  as  men  rejoice  when  they  divide  the 
spoil."  It  is  the  confident  men  who  fear  not 
the  faces  of  men — triumphant  men  who  keep 
step  with  Jesus  Christ  in  his  march  victorious, 
triumphant,  around  the  world. 

I  sat  with  a  man  in  his  office  this  week,  who 
told  me  of  his  search  for  peace.  Though  he  was 
a  Protestant,  he  had  intimate  Catholic  friends, 
with  whom  he  had  talked  and  had  laid  his  plans 
to  visit  the  priest.  Then  his  attention  was  di- 
rected to  the  advent, of  a  visiting  minister  of 

[62] 


THE    TAX 


Unitarian  faith.  He  was  charmed  with  his 
utterance,  but  the  message  gave  no  peace. 
He  followed  him,  however,  into  the  city  from 
which  he  came  and  listened  again.  But  the 
message,  discussing  and  repudiating  miracles, 
"  only  confirmed  my  doubts,"  said  he,  "  and 
did  not  bring  peace."  And  what  stronger  in- 
dictment than  that  could  a  man  utter  against 
such  preaching?  The  world  doesn't  need  the 
help  of  men  to  confirm  doubts.  It  needs  the 
help  of  men  who  can  bring  assurance  and  hope 
and  peace.  This  cannot  be  done  by  men  whose 
sermons  start  no  farther  back,  nor  deeper  down, 
nor  higher  up,  than  the  teeth.  No,  Fred  ;  there 
is  no  triumph  in  preaching  like  that. 

Triumphant  preaching  is  a  tax  upon  the 
whole  man.  It  is  the  man  that  must  be  sacri- 
ficed on  Sunday.  Let  him  be  neither  common 
nor  unclean.  Let  him  come  to  the  people 
after  the  rest  and  refreshment  of  the  yesterday, 
and  the  brooding  of  the  week,  and  the  fellow- 
ship with  God  and  his  saints,  and  the  hours  in 
the  closet  with  the  closed  door,  and  at  the  ap- 
pointed hour  let  his  sacrifice  be  complete.  Let 
him  tell  them  things  that  he  knows — that  God 

[63] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


loves  them  ;  that  his  is  a  brooding,  atoning  love  ; 
that  sin  is  more  than  a  mistake  or  a  struggling 
toward  the  light — it  is  a  deadly  thing  that  can- 
not be  trifled  with  ;  that  heaven  is  in  the  heights 
and  that  it  is  for  those  who  accept  the  gift ;  that 
there  is  forgiveness  for  the  men  and  the  women 
who  have  failed,  who  turn  to  him.  Oh,  yes,  my 
friend,  great  things  have  been  done  for  us  in 
Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour,  Redeemer  and  King. 
Prayer  is  a  great  sluice  gate  through  which  the 
reservoir  of  God's  love  and  grace  and  power 
can  be  poured  upon  the  soul  and  upon  the 
world.  Love,  yes,  wonderful  love,  is  the  mes- 
sage the  world  needs. 

*'  Oh,  'twas  love,  'twas  wondrous  love, 
The  love  of  God  to  me, 
It  brought  my  Saviour  from  above, 
To  die  on  Calvary." 

Fred,  the  trouble  is  with  many  souls,  it  may 
be  with  some  that  are  in  the  ministry,  that  they 
do  not  know  these  things.  If  they  know  them — 
then  their  conviction  is  not  deep  enough.  They 
have  no  experience  out  of  which  to  speak. 
There  is  no  passion  in  their  utterance.  There 
is  no  real  tax  when  they  preach. 

[64] 


THE    TAX 


Give  yourself  "  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  accept- 
able unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service. 
And  be  not  conformed  to  this  world  :  but  be  ye 
transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your  mind,  that 
ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good,  and  accept- 
able, and  perfect,  will  of  God." 
Sincerely  yours, 

Timothy  Kilbourn. 


[65] 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  FELLOWSHIP 

Dear  Fred  : 

One  of  the  great  words  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  one  of  the  great  joys  in  the 
Christian  Hfe,  and  one  of  the  blessed  and  com- 
forting experiences  in  the  triumphant  ministry, 
is  fellowship. 

It  is  worth  a  man's  while  to  remember  the 
men  who  have  wrought,  for  God  and  men,  in 
the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ.  Beginning  with 
the  apostles,  there  has  continued  a  succession 
of  heroes  and  saints  whose  characters  and  per- 
sonalities shed  luster  on  the  race  and  magnify 
the  gospel  which  we  preach. 

The  apostle  Paul  is  the  outstanding  apostle 
of  the  New  Testament  for  the  following  rea- 
sons :  First,  his  personal  acquaintance  with 
the  Lord  began  after  the  Lord's  ascension. 
Jesus  Christ,  glorified  and  reigning  in  glory, 
appeared  to  him  with  such  clarity  and  distinct- 

[66] 


THE    FELLOWSHIP 


ness  and  directness,  that  the  acquaintance  had 
all  the  marks  of  the  sensuous,  as  well  as  the 
spiritual,  reality  which  the  other  disciples  had 
had  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth  in  the  flesh.  In 
the  second  place,  upon  the  experience  of  this 
contact  with  Christ,  the  whole  person,  prospects 
and  purposes  of  the  apostle  were  converted. 
**  Circumcised  the  eighth  day,  of  the  stock  of 
Israel,  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  an  Hebrew  of 
the  Hebrews  ;  as  touching  the  law,  a  Pharisee ; 
concerning  zeal,  persecuting  the  church  ;  touch- 
ing the  righteousness  which  is  in  the  law, 
blameless," — yet  what  things  were  gain  to 
him  these  he  counted  loss  for  Christ ;  yea, 
doubtless,  he  counted  '*  all  things  but  loss  for 
the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ" 
and  did  "  count  them  but  dung  "  that  he  might 
win  Christ  and  be  found  in  him.  That  is  to 
say,  the  evolutionizing  effect  of  this  contact 
with  the  ascended  and  glorified  Lord  was  so 
great,  that,  gathering  together  all  the  glories 
of  ancestry,  and  all  the  advantages  of  privilege, 
and  all  the  allurements  of  office,  he  laid  them 
on  the  altar  of  this  fellowship  and  counted  their 
sacrifice  gain.     And  in  the  third  place  the  sus- 

[67] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


taining  and  inspiring  effect  of  this  fellowship 
— out  of  which  came  a  wonderful  ministry,  a 
wonderful  message,  a  wonderful  heroism  in  the 
face  of  tribulation,  a  wonderful  hope  for  the 
eternity  to  come  and  a  wonderful  conscious- 
ness of  the  divine  Presence — lifts  Paul's  char- 
acter to  the  dominant  place  in  the  history  of 
great  workers  for  God  and  humanity  in  this 
world.  Many  times  have  1  read  his  charge  to 
Timothy  for  its  inspiring  effect  upon  me.  I 
like  the  translation  of  Arthur  Way  :  "  As  for 
me  I  think  my  work  is  done.  I  am  as  wine 
just  about  to  be  spilt  on  the  altar — as  a  ship  at 
point  to  put  out  to  sea.  I  am  a  wrestler  who 
has  achieved  a  gallant  struggle,  a  runner  who 
has  finished  his  race,  a  soldier  who  has  kept 
his  oath  of  loyal  obedience.  Henceforth  there 
is  laid  up  in  store  for  me  the  victor's  wreath  of 
righteousness,  which  the  Lord  will  award  me 
in  the  Great  Day,  the  Lord  the  Righteous 
Judge — and  not  to  me  alone,  but  (to  you  also, 
Fred  ;  and)  to  all  who  with  yearning  love  have 
watched  for  his  appearing." 

Now  I  say  it  is  a  comfort  and  an  inspiration 
to    have   fellowship    with  Paul.     When  I  read 


[68] 


THE    FELLOWSHIP 


his  letters,  and  know  his  personal  conflict,  and 
victory  through  grace,  and  make  discovery  of 
his  anxiety  for  the  Church,  and  his  passionate 
love  for  this  young  man,  and  for  the  blessed 
Lord — I  know  that  that  same  conflict  and  joy 
and  triumph  have  been  found  in  the  heart  of 
men  down  to  this  present  day — and,  sometimes, 
in  me. 

I  will  not  stop  to  mention  the  great  saints  in 
whom  the  grace  of  the  gospel  burned,  and  who 
sacrificed  their  inheritances  and  privileges  for 
Christ,  and  w^ho  laid  themselves  on  the  altar  of 
his  service  until  utterly  consumed.  I  have  the 
record  of  some  of  them  to  whom  I  have  turned 
again  and  again  in  the  consciousness  that  they 
are  redeemed  by  the  same  Blood  by  which  I  am 
redeemed.  The  works  of  two  or  three  of  them 
are  before  me  now  as  I  write  to  you.  To  them 
I  owe  more  than  I  can  ever  repay.  Get  these 
works  and  read  them,  that  you  may  see  the 
wonders  of  divine  love  working  in  them  as  it 
works  in  me  and  in  you.  You  will  then  broaden 
your  acquaintance  with  the  wonders  of  grace  in 
the  Church,  and  enlarge  the  consciousness  of 
your  fellowship  with  God's  saints. 


[69] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


I  must  mention  some  other  saints  you  may 
not  have  met.  There  are  some  of  the  old  ones 
like  Samuel  Rutherford  of  Anwoth  of  whom  it  is 
said,  '*  He  was  always  praying,  always  preach- 
ing, always  visiting  the  sick,  always  catechising, 
always  writing  and  studying."  His  biographer 
says  that  an  English  merchant  said  of  him, 
**  Even  in  days  when  controversy  had  sorely 
vexed  him  and  distracted  his  spirit,  I  came  to 
Irvine,  and  heard  a  well-favored,  proper  old 
man  with  a  long  beard,  and  that  man  showed 
me  all  my  heart.  Then  I  went  to  St.  Andrews 
where  I  heard  a  sweet,  majestic-looking  man, 
and  he  showed  me  the  majesty  of  God.  After 
him  I  heard  a  litde  fair  man  and  he  showed  me 
the  loveliness  of  Christ." 

When  you  take  up  his  epistles  and  read  there 
of  his  full  heart  of  suffering  in  his  own  life,  and 
the  unstinted  comfort  which  he  poured  out  for 
those  to  whom  he  wrote,  and  the  courage  with 
which  he  talked  to  every  soul  to  whom  he  found 
approach,  you  realize  that  the  task  laid  upon  him 
is  the  task  that  is  laid  on  us  ;  and  the  inspiration 
that  inspired  him  is  the  same  that  must  inspire 
us  ;  and  the  grace  that  adorned  him  is  the  one 

[70] 


THE    FELLOWSHIP 


adornment  for  us.  I  cannot  do  more  than  select 
a  few  sentences  from  his  letters  to  indicate  the 
wealth  of  fellowship  with  him.  ''  It  is  (as  I  now 
know  by  experience)  hard  to  keep  sight  of  God 
in  a  storm,  especially  when  he  hides  himself,  for 
the  trial  of  his  children."  In  a  letter  to  Lady 
Kenmure  he  says  :  "  I  and  they  are  not  worthy 
of  Jesus  Christ  who  will  not  suffer  forty  years' 
trouble  for  him,  since  they  have  such  glorious 
promises.  But  we  fools  believe  those  promises 
as  the  man  that  read  Plato's  writing  concerning 
the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  so  long  as  the  book 
was  in  his  hand  he  believed  all  was  true,  and 
that  the  soul  could  not  die ;  but  so  soon  as  he 
laid  by  the  book,  he  began  to  imagine  that  the 
soul  is  but  a  smoke  or  airy  vapor,  that  perisheth 
with  the  expiring  of  the  breath.  So  we  at  starts 
do  assent  to  the  sweet  and  precious  promises  ; 
but,  laying  aside  God's  book,  we  begin  to  call 
all  in  question.  It  is  faith  indeed  to  believe 
without  a  pledge,  and  to  hold  the  heart  constant 
at  this  work  ;  and,  when  we  doubt,  to  run  to  the 
law  and  to  the  testimony,  and  stay  there." 
And  when  the  day  comes  that  you  must  inspire 
and  strengthen  a  soul,  sorely  tempted  to  sacri- 

[71] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


fice  its  faith  in  the  face  of  distressing  circum- 
stances and  powerful  adverse  influences— before 
you  go  out  to  do  your  work,  take  a  look  at 
Rutherford's  letter  to  Lord  Craighall,  ''  who 
was  tempted  to  mistake  truth  and  Christ,  be- 
cause they  seemed  to  encounter  his  peace  and 
ease."  When  you  have  read  that,  you  will 
know  that  ministers  have  met  your  requirements 
before  and  have  played  the  man. 

And  when  you  have  had  fellowship  with 
Rutherford,  you  can  come  down  to  a  later  time 
and  walk  with  McCheyne  of  Dundee.  I  open 
my  copy  of  his  life  at  random  and  read,  "  Gladly 
would  I  have  escaped  from  the  Shepherd  that 
sought  me  as  I  strayed  ;  but  he  took  me  up  in 
his  arms  and  carried  me  back ;  and  yet  he  took 
me  not  for  anything  that  was  in  me."  Thus 
this  saint,  who  died  when  but  thirty  years  of 
age,  goes  on  in  his  passionate  abandon  to  the 
love  of  Christ  whom  he  preached.  And  the 
man  who  would  be  a  minister  of  Christ,  to  your 
day  and  mine,  must  get  the  same  experience 
and  touch  with  the  Source  of  life  that  McCheyne 
and  Rutherford  and  all  the  saints  of  God  have 
had  in  every  land  and  in  every  age. 

[72] 


THE   FELLOWSHIP 


Fred,  in  this  day  when  social  service  is  the 
urgent  need,  and  the  social  fad,  there  is  great 
danger  lest  the  minister  get  confused  in  the 
emphasis  so  frequently  laid.  The  power  of  the 
ministry  will  be,  as  it  has  ever  been,  not  in  the 
consequent  but  in  the  antecedent  relations  of  his 
life.  Power  will  not  depend  on  your  activity 
in  labor  unions,  social  setdements  and  clubs. 
Power  will  not  depend  on  the  experience  and 
achievements  you  may  gain  in  contact  with 
men.  Power  will  be  gained  in  the  fellowship 
you  maintain  before  you  go  down  to  the 
market,  the  settlement  or  the  street.  The  men 
who  have  ministered  in  this  work,  as  you  are 
ministering  now,  teach  us  this,  that  the  secret  of 
power,  of  achievement,  of  service,  is  the  same 
in  every  age — it  is  with  God.  The  men  of 
whom  I  have  written  did  great  things.  There 
are  men  like  them  now  who  are  doing  as  great 
things  ;  and  it  is  your  privilege  and  mine  to  have 
fellowship  with  them  and  share  their  triumph. 
But,  above  everything,  let  us  share  their  experi- 
ence and  their  fellowship  in  the  secret  place  of 
power. 

Then  there  is  the  fellowship  with  those  with 

[73] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


whom  and  for  whom  you  work  in  your  "  field." 
There  are  the  young  men  and  women  in  that 
field  whose  hves  are  filled  with  the  joy  and 
visions  of  youth.  They  share  them  with  you. 
I  have  just  returned  to  my  study  at  nine  o'clock 
in  the  evening.  I  lunched  at  noon  with  a  man 
whom  I  could  not  see  at  any  other  time.  At 
that  luncheon  he  gave  me  a  confidence  which 
he  had  **  never  shared  with  another  soul."  My 
last  visit  was  with  a  young  man  barely  past 
twenty-two  years  of  age.  We  met  ten  days 
ago.  I  inquired  about  his  relation  to  Christ  and 
the  Church.  In  reply  he  invited  me  to  visit  him 
at  his  room  for  a  chat.  I  have  just  returned. 
While  I  was  in  his  room  he  gave  me  some 
confidences  touching  his  ambitions  in  business 
and  his  hope  to  make  good  in  this  city  to  which 
he  has  recently  come.  Having  first  settled  his 
relation  to  Christ,  the  business  on  which  I  had 
come  to  him,  we  continued  our  fellowship  on 
subjects  of  much  interest  to  him.  He  shared 
with  me  the  visions  and  hopes  and  purposes  of 
a  man  of  twenty-two,  and  that  made  a  man 
twenty  years  older  twenty-two  years  young 
again. 

[74] 


THE    FELLOWSHIP 


In  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  I  visited  a 
man  and  his  wife,  over  eighty  years  of  age — a 
far  call  from  the  lad  of  twenty-two.  On  in- 
quiring how  they  had  fared  since  my  last  call 
several  months  before,  they  told  me  of  long  and 
continued  suffering  and  ill  health.  Said  the  old 
man  :  "  I  do  not  know  why  I  am  not  taken 
away.  I  am  no  longer  of  any  service  to  the 
world.  I  am  miserable  myself  and  a  burden  to 
my  friends.  I  do  not  know  why  I  should  stay." 
He  looked  to  me  for  an  answer  which  I  could 
not  give.  So  I  confessed  I  did  not  know,  but  I 
said  :  ''  There  must  be  something  more  for  you 
to  do  and,  possibly,  it  is  to  pray.  There  is 
great  need  of  intercession  to-day.  And  this  is 
a  work  you  can  continue  to  do.  Nothing  can 
hinder  you.  So  long  as  you  have  strength  of 
mind  to  turn  to  God  and  carry  some  petitions 
up  to  him,  you  can  go  on  in  service  to  God  and 
men — a  service  we  greatly  need.  I  need  your 
prayers,  and  so  do  your  sons,  and  there  must  be 
many  others  who  have  needs  like  ours.  If  I 
could  know  on  next  Sunday  when  I  enter  my 
pulpit  that  you  were  praying  for  me  here  in 
your  room,  that  would  give  me  the  experience 

[75] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


of  your  fellowship  in  my  work."  He  listened 
with  the  attention  of  a  man  who  had  a  new  op- 
portunity, after  retirement,  to  begin  again. 
And  his  wife,  perceiving  that  I  was  preparing 
to  leave,  requested  a  word  of  prayer  before  I 
should  go.  Taking  my  Testament,  I  read  a  few 
verses  here  and  there  and  closed  with  Mark 
II  :  24,  as  bearing  on  what  I  had  just  said. 
Then  we  all  knelt,  the  old  man  doing  so  with 
great  difficulty,  supporting  his  head  upon  his 
cane.  As  we  arose  and  I  extended  my  hand  in 
farewell,  the  old  man  said,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,  "  I  thank  you  for  this  visit  to-day.  I 
hope  you  will  come  again  soon  ;  you  teach  us 
how  to  pray." 

Ah,  Fred,  my  boy  !  Though  I  fear  my  teach- 
ing amounts  to  very  little,  there  was  fellowship 
in  the  quiet  of  that  humble  home  between  a  man 
of  eighty-eight  and  another  less  than  half  that 
age.  And  the  younger  man  went  out  conscious 
of  having  shared  with  them  the  felicity  and 
strength  of  the  service  men  may  render  upon 
their  knees  in  the  closet  with  the  closed  door. 
As  I  went  on  the  round  of  visiting  and  committee 
work,  and  even  to  the  gymnasium  for  an  hour's 


[76] 


THE    FELLOWSHIP 


play,  the  words  of  the  old  man,  "  You  teach  us 
how  to  pray,"  continued  to  ring  in  my  ears  and 
brighten  and  lighten  the  way. 

As  I  write  to  you  I  look  on  the  face  of  a  man 
whom  God  gave  me  the  privilege  to  meet  when 
I  was  under  thirty.  Father  G was  a  Scotch- 
man of  the  Lachlan  Campbell  type.  In  appear- 
ance he  was  a  patriarch — somewhat  above 
medium  height,  broad-shouldered  and  erect. 
His  hair  and  ample  beard  were  snowy  white. 
His  eye  was  as  keen  as  an  eagle's.  He  had 
been  for  many  years  a  herring  fisherman  off  the 
Isle  of  Lewis  and  the  Scotland  coast.  He  had 
lived  in  Stornaway,  of  which  Van  Dyke  has 
written  in  "  Little  Rivers,"  and  had  some  great 
memories  of  preachers  and  scholars  in  the  old 
land,  at  Glasgow  and  Aberdeen.  He  was  mer- 
ciless when  he  dealt  with  shifdess  and  trifling 
ministers  in  fiction  or  real  life.  He  had  a  way 
of  arresting  his  minister  in  the  midst  of  his  re- 
marks at  the  midweek  service,  if  he  disagreed 
with  the  teaching  brought ;  and  there  was  no 
possible  procedure  from  that  point  until  he  was 
either  satisfied  or  dislodged  from  his  position. 
He    would   begin   his   interruption   by   saying 

[77] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


"  Master  "  (he  always  called  his  minister  "  Mas- 
ter"), ''Master,  I  don't  agree  with  you."  To 
which    the  minister  would  reply,    "  Very  w^ell, 

Father  G ,  state  your  point."     "  Take  your 

Scriptures,"   he  would  say,  '*  and  turn  to  book 

.  and  verse  and  ye'U  read   [here  he 

would  read] ,  and  now  tell  me  what  ye'll  do  with 
that."  When  the  young  minister  found  a  man 
like  that  he  never  came  to  his  task  unprepared. 
As  the  years  passed  away  a  sore  affliction, 
cancer  of  the  tongue,  befell  the  Scotchman,  and 
destroyed  the  power  of  speech.  I  visited  him 
every  other  day  for  several  months  before  he 
received  the  great  promotion.  It  was  a  privi- 
lege to  sit  with  him  there  in  his  room  and  talk 
of  the  tests  of  faith,  the  privilege  and  power  of 
prayer,  the  interests  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
the  fellowship  with  Christ  and  the  promise  of 
the  life  to  come.  One  Sunday  morning  in 
January,  1904,  I  went  over  to  his  house  for 
prayers  before  going  to  the  pulpit  at  the  regu- 
lar hour.  He  had  had  a  bad  night  and  the  end 
was  not  far  away.  I  knelt  at  the  foot  of  the  bed 
and  prayed.  He  sat  propped  up  in  his  bed.  As 
we  opened  our  eyes  at  the  close  of  the  prayer,  we 

[78] 


THE    FELLOWSHIP 


looked  into  each  other's  faces — a  long,  deep, 
searching  look.  I  said,  *'  It's  a  hard  way  you 
have  had  to  travel  to  the  gate."  To  which  he 
nodded  his  head  in  assent.  "  But  He'll  meet  you 
at  the  end  of  the  way."  Again  he  nodded  as- 
sent, while  we  continued  to  look  into  each 
other's  faces.  Too  full  for  further  speech,  I 
arose  and  offered  my  hand,  which  he  took  in 
fervent  farewell,  and  with  his  look  and  clasp  of 
benediction  I  went  away.  In  the  gray  of  the 
early  morning  of  the  following  day  he  passed 
away.  But  the  benediction  and  blessing  of  his 
kindly,  fatherly  fellowship  abides  with  me  still. 

Fred,  communion  with  saints  is  the  peculiar 
privilege  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ.  And 
happy  is  the  man  who  has  his  friendship  among 
the  saints.  1  remember  several  years  ago  Sir 
W.  Robertson  Nicoll  wrote  in  the  *'  British 
Weekly  "  :  "  The  man  is  to  be  pitied  who  has 
never  known  a  great  saint.  The  saints  do  not 
know  their  sainthood.  They  are  the  humblest 
of  the  humble.  Often,  indeed,  they  doubt  not 
Christ,  indeed,  but  their  own  interest  in  Christ. 
They  shrink  from  self-display  and  oftentimes 
their  earthly  opportunities  seem  to  be  very  few. 

[79] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


If  they  were  to  look  at  things  which  are  seen 
they  might  be  discouraged,  they  might  feel 
alone,  they  might  say,  '  We  have  nothing  bet- 
ter than  this  poor  little  house  in  this  poor  little 
village  and  the  chance  of  wiping  some  tears 
from  some  eyes.'  They  might  feel  discouraged 
at  the  thought  of  what  others  have  and  what 
others  can  do.  The  sweet  odors  of  their  life 
may  lie  quiet  and  still  till,  on  some  day  of  storm, 
the  flower  bells  in  God's  garden  are  shaken 
and  their  fragrance  flows  forth."  Great  indeed 
is  the  privilege  of  dwelling  among  these  flowers 
of  God  !  Great  is  the  triumph  of  the  ministry 
that  watches  them  live  and  flourish  on  the  hills 
of  God. 

But  the  triumph  of  the  ministry  is  in  fellow- 
ship with  Christ.  "  That  I  may  know  him,  and 
the  power  of  his  resurrection,  and  the  fellowship 
of  his  sufferings,"  says  Paul.  "  Our  fellowship 
is  with  the  Father,  and  with  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ,"  says  John.  And  this  is  really  the  thing 
each  one  of  us  must  know  if  we  are  to  experi- 
ence the  triumphant  ministry. 

Now  let  us  get  a  right  view  of  the  facts  of 
the  gospel  and  of  the  message  we  are  to  pro- 

[80] 


THE    FELLOWSHIP 


claim  and  the  ministry  we  are  to  make.  We 
live  in  a  day  when  the  vocabulary  of  fifty  years 
ago  is  out  of  date  ; — if  the  ideas  back  of  the 
words  of  that  time  are  not  out  of  date.  The 
doctrine  of  vicarious  suffering  is  not  familiar 
to  the  present  generation.  Indeed,  suffering  is 
a  thing  that  in  popular  thought  is  decidedly 
out  of  date.  It  has  no  place  in  the  present- 
day  scheme  of  things,  or  present-day  speech, 
or  present-day  life.  The  gospel  of  a  crucified, 
atoning,  sacrificial  Saviour  is  declared  to  be- 
long to  the  past.  These  great  words  are 
seldom  heard  in  polite  circles  of  pulpit  speech. 
Nevertheless,  Fred,  do  what  we  may,  the 
gospel  of  the  New  Testament  is  one  of  a  suf- 
fering, crucified,  dying,  sin-bearing  Saviour, 
who  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  who 
was  bruised  for  our  iniquities,  and  by  whose 
stripes  we  are  healed.  The  men  and  women 
who  have  been  crowned  as  saints  are  men  and 
women  who  have  used  language  like  this — 
''  He  was  wounded  for  me."  And,  moreover, 
the  men  who  have  become  leaders  in  the  realm 
of  religion  are  men  who  have  seen,  down  deep 
in  the  heart  of   things,  the  great  essential  ele- 

[81] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


merits  of  the  gospel  of  suffering  and  sacrifice 
which  we  must  preach.  And  the  men  who  are 
triumphant  in  the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ — at 
least  those  whom  I  have  been  privileged  to 
meet — are  men  who  honor  the  crucified  Christ 
and  who  relate  their  conscious  experience  of 
sins  forgiven,  and  heart  cleansed,  and  life 
sweetened,  and  will  renewed,  and  peace  within, 
to  him  hanging  on  the  tree  at  Calvary.  When 
a  man  faces  the  "  plague  of  his  own  heart "  he 
goes  to  Calvary  for  deliverance  and  victory  and 
peace. 

And  there  comes  also  to  them  the  conscious- 
ness that  through  Christ  they  are  related  to  the 
men  for  whom  Christ  died.  They  grieve  over 
the  world's  sin  and  shame.  Some  of  them 
bear  about  in  their  lives  the  burden  of  the 
world's  woe,  and  long  for  the  opportunity  to 
bring  it  peace.  As  Jesus  wept  over  Jerusalem 
so  do  these  men  of  God  weep  over  the  Church. 
They  could  be  accursed  for  their  brethren's 
sake.  And  some  of  those  who  are  not  pos- 
sessed by  such  a  passionate  devotion  to  the 
race,  will  nevertheless  refuse  prospects  and 
privileges  of  home  and  native  land  to  go  forth 


[82] 


THE    FELLOWSHIP 


to  the  ends  of  the  world  to  tell  of  the  love  that 
gave  Jesus  to  die  for  them.  The  sustaining, 
inspiring  note  in  the  lives  of  such  men  is  a 
lively  consciousness  of  their  fellowship  with 
Christ,  who,  though  he  was  rich  with  the 
Father  yet  for  our  sakes  became  poor  that 
we  through  his  poverty  might  be  made  rich. 
Such  men  have  a  peace  that  possesses  them, 
and  that  sustains  them,  and  that  exalts  them 
— an  experience  better  than  understanding  that 
is  able  to  keep  their  hearts  and  minds  in  Christ 
Jesus.  These  are  triumphant  men.  They  know 
that  Christ  is  going  to  bring  this  world  to  him- 
self. And  though  there  may  be  many  a  battle 
fought  in  which  his  faltering  hosts  may  fail,  or 
seem  to  fail,  the  ultimate  victory  is  sure.  He  has 
shared  it  with  them  now,  and  day  by  day  they 
prevail.  They  have  already  triumphed  with  him. 
I  am  writing  you  at  this  Lenten  season  with 
a  consciousness  of  this  fellowship  with  a  risen 
Lord  quickened  by  a  line  from  a  letter  received 
from  a  dear  friend  one  memorable  day  years 
ago.  Our  families  had  spent  a  week  together 
in  camp  on  a  beautiful  northern  stream.  My 
friend's   husband    complained   of   indisposition 

[83] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


near  the  end  of  our  stay  and  went  home  to  lose 
in  strength  and  readiness  for  his  task.  As  the 
autumn  and  winter  came  on  he  continued  to 
decUne  until  in  midwinter  he  passed  away, 
leaving  her  with  five  little  children  to  care  for 
and  educate.  She  had  gone  back  to  dear  old 
Scotland,  the  scene  of  her  girlhood,  meeting 
the  burdens  of  life  with  a  brave  heart  and  a 
steady  faith.  But  there  was  loneliness  and 
longing  for  the  touch  of  that  vanished  hand. 
We  approached  the  Easter  time.  When  it  was 
but  two  weeks  away  she  sent  us  a  letter  with 
a  line  in  it  like  this  :  "  Easter  is  coming  again. 
What  a  wonderful  day  it  is  for  those  of  us  who 
walk  the  sorrowful  way." 

And  so  it  is.  But  Fred,  it  is  not  only  so  for 
those  who  grieve  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished 
hand,  but  for  all  whose  life  is  shadowed  by 
sickness  or  disease  or  pain  or  blighted  hopes 
or  circumstances  of  a  "  living  death." 

The  Scriptures  are  filled  with  the  story  of 
God's  broken  heart,  of  his  unrequited  love. 
Take  Hosea,  for  example,  a  story  of  one  whose 
bosom  companion  was  a  traitor  to  love.  There 
is  the  plaintive  note  in  the  opening  chapter  of 


[84] 


THE    FELLOWSHIP 


the  Gospel  according  to  John,  "  He  came  unto 
his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not."  There 
is  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  though  it  is 
not  rightly  named  ;  it  is  the  story  of  a  Father's 
unrequited  love.  But  in  it  and  in  all  the  rest, 
God  has  shared  the  heartache  of  men  and  in- 
vited them  to  bring  their  burdens  to  him. 

Those  who  have  yoked  with  Christ  have 
found  that  they  are  not  alone.  They  know  that 
their  burden  is  shared.  They  have  felt  the  di- 
vine Presence.  They  have  had  given  to  them 
a  song  for  the  night.  They  have  heard  the 
whisperings  of  love  down  at  the  wicket  gate. 
They  have  seen  the  light  and  glory  of  the 
breaking  day — when  no  one  else  could  see 
through  the  blackness  of  the  night.  And 
through  long  years  they  have  waited  for  him 
in  peace,  drawing  strength  sufficient  to  sustain 
them  in  the  consciousness  of  his  fellowship  in 
the  sorrowful  way. 

Quit  you  like  a  man,  be  strong,  Fred  !     But 

"  Did  we  in  our  own  strength  confide, 
Our  striving  would  be  losing ; 
Were  not  the  right  man  on  our  side, 
The  man  of  God's  own  choosing  : 
[85] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


Dost  ask  who  that  may  be  ? 
Christ  Jesus,  it  is  he; 
Lord  Sabaolh  his  name, 
From  age  to  age  the  same, 
And  he  must  win  the  battle." 

These  things  I  write  unto  you  that  you  may 
have  fellowship  with  me  and  that  our  fellowship 
may  be  with  the  Father  and  with  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Timothy  Kilbourn. 


[86] 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  GOAL 

Dear  Fred  : 

A  famous  college  president  has  coined  a 
famous  phrase  :  ''  The  world  turns  aside  to  let 
any  man  pass  who  knows  whither  he's  going." 
I  think  this  is  one  of  the  most  important  ele- 
ments in  the  triumphant  ministry — that  the 
minister  should  know  whither  he  is  going. 
The  Church  does  not  have  the  impact  that  it 
should  have  on  the  oppositions  it  has  to  face  to- 
day, for  the  reason  that  it  lacks  organizing  prin- 
ciple and  sustaining  purpose.  Most  churches 
exist  through  fortuitous  circumstances  favorable 
to  their  becoming  and  continuing.  A  certain 
number  of  people  living  in  the  same  com- 
munity, with  like  ancestry  or  training,  are 
gathered  together  by  some  zealous  missionary, 
who  appoints  or  leads  to  the  appointment  of 
officers,  and  the  organization  formed  is  called 
a  church.  The  churches  which  are  organized 
with  a  definite  and   adequate   purpose,   under 

[87] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


the  inspiration  and  power  of  an  achieving 
principle,  are  far  less  numerous.  In  conse- 
quence each  church  is  described,  more  or  less, 
by  the  character,  vision  and  purpose,  of  the 
minister  who  happens  to  be  serving  them. 
They  are  not  described  by  the  embodiment  of 
a  sustaining,  perpetuating,  achieving  purpose, 
which  survives  that  minister,  his  residence  and 
leadership,  or  the  incumbency  of  any  one  man 
who  happens  to  be  in  office  there.  From  year 
to  year  the  newly  elected  officers  come  into 
office ;  but  there  is  nothing  in  the  life  and  work 
of  the  board  that  impresses  them  with  its  im- 
portance half  so  much  as  did  the  event  of  their 
election.  At  that  time,  possibly,  several  names 
were  considered  and  voted  upon.  When  the 
votes  were  counted  they  received  the  majority 
of  votes  and  the  congratulations  of  their  friends, 
while  they  and  their  families  went  home  with 
the  pleasant  feeling  that  they  were  honored  by 
the  congregation.  When  they  met  for  the  first 
time,  with  the  other  members  of  the  board, 
they  had  nothing  definite  given  them  to  do ; 
they  learned  of  no  dominant,  masterful  purpose 
to  which  they,  as  officers,  and  the  whole  con- 

[88] 


THE    GOAL 


gregational  life,  were  to  be  adjusted  ;  and  when 
they  went  home  from  the  meetings  in  later  days 
they  were  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  futility 
and  loss  of  time.  What  is  the  trouble?  Lack 
of  policy,  lack  of  goal.  There  is  nothing  for 
them  to  work  toward  and  to  work  out.  Prin- 
ciples of  organizing  power  and  sustaining 
strength  and  commanding  effect  are  not  found 
in  their  church.  The  church  does  not  stand  for 
something  and  work  for  something.  It  lacks 
contact  and  impact.  The  forces  of  evil  in  that 
community  have  no  fear  of  that  church. 

Now  there  are  banks  in  that  community. 
But  those  banks  have  an  organizing  principle. 
Mr.  Jones  does  not  receive  credit  at  the  bank 
simply  because  he  happens  to  be  in  the  same 
social  set,  or  belong  to  the  family  of  Mr.  Bill- 
ings, director  of  said  bank.  If  Mr.  Jones  wishes 
to  do  business  with  that  bank  he  must  adjust 
himself  to  the  organizing  principles  of  the  insti- 
tution. And  there  is  the  packing  house  of 
Hovey  and  Huston.  It  is  a  great  institution. 
Why?  Because  it  is  well  founded  and  effi- 
ciently organized,  and  described  by  the  char- 
acter of   its   founder,  who  is  noted  for  his  in- 

[89] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


tegrity  of  character,  his  fairness  in  dealing,  and 
his  insight  and  understanding  of  the  business. 
The  methods  and  movements  of  the  men  who 
are  in  the  managing  offices  of  that  institution 
have  a  character  that  is  their  own  and  symp- 
tomatic of  the  life  of  the  institution.  If  Mr. 
Hovey  should  be  absent  from  his  place  on  the 
Board  of  Directors  for  a  year  or  five  years,  in 
all  probability  the  business  would  go  on  doing 
as  it  had  always  done  and  would  be  in  perfect 
harmony  with  the  policy  that  has  described  it 
from  the  beginning. 

While  I  write  this  there  lies  on  my  desk 
•'  The  Investors'  Magazine,"  published  by  a 
great  financial  house  and  mailed  to  their 
patrons  each  month.  The  opening  article  is  by 
the  president  of  that  house,  who  is  going  abroad 
for  four  months  or  more.  It  is  his  parting  ad- 
dress to  the  employees  of  the  house.  He  says  : 
**  I  anticipate  sales  much  larger  than  we  ever 
have  known,  so  perhaps  it  would  be  worth 
while  for  me  to  restate  the  principles  I  want  you 
all  to  bear  in  mind  not  only  during  my  absence, 
but  at  all  times.  They  are  the  fundamentals  of 
this  business,  and  the  traditions  of  this  house, 

[90] 


THE    GOAL 


and  they  never  change.  These  principles  are 
prudence,  conservatism,  adherence  to  the  truth, 
protection  of  the  interests  of  our  cUents,  service 
and  loyalty  to  the  house." 

This  is  the  need  of  the  Church — to  know 
where  she  is  going,  what  she  is  purposing  to  do. 
Our  great  denomination  has  made  great  gains, 
in  the  past  twenty  years  in  the  statement  and 
reiteration  of  the  fact  that  the  Church  is  a  mis- 
sionary society  whose  business  is  to  give  the 
whole  gospel  to  the  whole  world.  Following 
this,  she  began  a  definite,  organized,  systematic 
effort  to  get  every  member  to  understand  and 
accept  this  view,  and  to  adopt  plans  and  methods 
of  instruction,  education  and  finance  that  will 
give  practical  effect  to  the  statement. 

Now,  Fred,  do  not  get  the  notion  that  this  is 
all  well  and  good  for  Dr.  Broadway's  church  on 
the  boulevard,  with  its  great  crowds  and  its 
wealthy  people  ;  but  that  it  will  not  apply  to  the 
church  at  Podunk  and  Possum  Trot.  It  is  the 
need  and  the  secret  of  church  efficiency  down 
there  as  well  as  out  yonder  in  the  great  city.  If 
there  are  only  two  men  on  the  official  board  at 
Podunk,  and  these  two  men  are  the  minister  and 

[91] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


the  janitor,  if  they  will  get  together  and  define 
their  purpose,  and  set  their  object  clearly  before 
them,  and  make  for  it,  they  will  get  somewhere 
and  they  will  bring  things  to  pass  that  will 
arouse,  inspire  and  enlist  other  men  and  women 
to  join  with  them.  The  sleepy,  drowsy  world, 
the  wicked,  worldly  world,  will  get  out  of  the 
way  and  let  them  go  forward  when  once  they 
see  they  are  making  for  something.  Podunk 
will  become  a  triumphant  church.  I  know,  for 
I  have  seen  her  become  triumphant. 

And  what  is  true  of  the  church  is  also  true  of 
the  minister.  Triumphant  men  are  those  who 
know  where  they  are  going.  Such  men  reach 
their  goal,  even  though  their  lives  are  troubled. 

Fred,  on  the  receipt  of  this,  I  want  you  to  sit 
down  and  say  to  yourself,  as  in  the  sight  of 
God  :  *'  Do  I  know  what  I  want  to  be  and  what 
I  want  to  do  ?  Am  I  doing  it  ?  Has  my  whole 
life  been  conformed  to  this  and  is  my  plan  for 
this  week  and  for  next  Sunday  and  for  my  whole 
ministry  in  harmony  with  this  great  object  ?  " 

The  prime  business  of  the  minister  is  to  pro- 
claim the  Word  of  God.  Some  of  us  do  it  in 
the  pulpit,  with  greater  power  than  at  any  other 


[92] 


THE    GOAL 


time  or  in  any  other  place.  Some  of  us  make 
rather  a  poor  showing  there  ;  but  when  we  go 
out  to  see  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls,  in 
their  homes  and  places  of  work  and  play,  where 
we  and  they  are  alone,  we  can  do  our  duty  better. 
And  there  are  others  of  us  who  have  no  facility 
or  power  in  public  speech  who  can  proclaim  the 
Word  through  the  printed  page.  There  are 
others  who  proclaim  it  in  the  closet  with  the 
closed  door,  who,  when  they  know  what  they 
want,  ask  for  it,  and  stake  their  claim  on  the 
promises  of  God  and  the  atonement  of  Christ. 
But  in  whatever  way,  we  all  can  say,  *'  I  de- 
termined not  to  know  anything  among  you, 
save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified."  Then, 
whatever  may  be  the  emphasis  God  wishes  to 
make  on  this  world  through  our  personality, 
men  will  get  it  and  know  that  it  is  the  dominant 
note  in  our  life.  It  is  the  organizing  principle 
at  work  in  all  our  movements.  It  gives  shape 
and  character  to  every  conversation.  It  is  an- 
nounced in  the  grace  or  awkwardness  of  our 
carriage  as  we  walk  the  streets.  It  shapes  our 
work  in  the  study.  It  envelops  us  in  its  own 
atmosphere  in   every   place.       It   will   give  an 

[93] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


unction,  an  anointing  to  our  counsel,  when  we 
sit  on  the  administrative  boards  of  our  parish, 
city  or  church. 

The  great  desideratum  in  all  the  social  serv- 
ice, teaching  and  movements  carried  on  by  the 
Church  and  Christian  workers,  to-day,  seems  to 
me  just  this.  They  do  not  express  the  deter- 
mination to  know  nothing  but  Jesus  Christ  and 
him  crucified.  I  have  followed  the  efforts  of 
several  men  to  meet  the  *'  down-town  proposi- 
tion "  in  the  cities  with  institutional  methods  of 
work;  and  I  have  followed  the  present-day  move- 
ments of  ''  the  church  and  country  life  "  with 
sympathy  and  hope ;  but  again  and  again  I  am 
yearning  for  something  that  seems  to  be  left  out. 
There  is  an  aroma  of  spices  and  sweet  perfume 
belonging  to  the  Spirit's  breath  that  does  not 
blow  on  my  face.  I  hear  the  accent,  strong  and 
distinct,  on  soil,  and  crops,  and  domestic 
science,  and  athletic  clubs,  and  educational 
classes,  and  mothers'  clubs,  and  lecture  forums, 
and  so  forth  and  so  on,  and  I  can  see  that  more 
or  less  interest  is  excited  for  a  time  in  every 
place  ;  but  I  miss  the  light  and  warmth  and 
heating  beams  of  the  Sun.     And,  somehow  or 

[94] 


THE    GOAL 


Other,  I  don't  catch  sight  of  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation  as  much  as  I  should  Hke  to.  I  see 
some  stalwart  men  who  wear  the  uniforms  and 
are  called  by  the  names  appropriate  to  his  aides, 
but  too  frequently  they  seem  to  be  in  command 
alone. 

Now,  Fred,  the  human  mind  is  capable  of 
great  things  and  gloriously  has  it  wrought,  but 
there  is  one  thing  it  cannot  do  ;  it  cannot  satisfy 
the  longing  of  the  soul  for  God.  There  is  no 
word  which  can  do  that  except  the  Word  of 
God.  At  a  great  convention  of  his  church,  Dr. 
Charles  E.  Jefferson  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  in  America  '*  we  have  suffered  a  heart- 
breaking disillusionment.  We  expected  great 
things  from  liberty  and  education,  and  have 
found  they  are  broken  reeds.  Neither  our 
wealth  nor  our  science  has  given  us  either 
peace  or  joy.  The  four  wizards — liberty  and 
education  and  wealth  and  science — have  per- 
formed their  mightiest  miracles  under  our  flag ; 
but  they  cannot  do  the  one  thing  essential ; 
they  cannot  keep  the  conscience  quick,  or  the 
soul  alive  to  God.  Our  sins  are  as  scarlet  and 
our  vices  are  red  like  crimson,  and  we  need 

[95] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


prophets  to  turn  the  nation  to  the  God  who  will 
abundantly  pardon." 

Set  out,  therefore,  to  proclaim  the  Word  of 
God.  It  will  keep  you  steady  when  the  winds 
of  social  strife  and  industrial  storm  beat  against 
your  bark.  It.  will  keep  you  steady  when  the 
popular  lecture  committee  siren  calls  you  to 
take  the  platform  and  spread  your  wings  in 
oratorical  flight.  It  will  keep  you  steady  when 
some  great  battle  must  be  fought  in  civic  life — 
when  city  ordinances  must  be  passed  or  revoked, 
or  vile  theaters  closed,  or  saloons  pushed  out. 
It  will  keep  you  steady  when  the  people,  who 
live  on  the  dead  level,  push  bridge  and  progres- 
sive euchre  into  the  basement  of  the  churches' 
social  life.  It  will  give  you  a  canon  of  judg- 
ment in  every  perplexity,  where,  otherwise,  you 
might  miss  the  mark  on  what  is  lawful  and 
what  is  not.  It  will  give  you  an  object  to  steer 
by  when  making  the  channel  that  is  narrow 
between  the  rocks.  Keep  your  eye  on  the 
cross,  and  determine  your  course  by  it,  and 
your  message  by  it,  and  your  counsel  by  it, 
that  when  the  day  is  done  men  may  say,  *'  We 
have  seen  Jesus,  and  Jesus  alone." 

[96] 


THE    GOAL 


There  came  to  my  hand  this  morning  the 
parting  message  of  that  man  of  prayer,  John 
Hyde,  to  the  church  in  India.  It  has  put  new 
life  into  my  faith  and  joy  in  Christ  and  will 
illustrate  the  environment  and  inspiration  of  a 
soul  that  is  under  the  spell  of  which  I  speak. 
''  Tell  them,"  said  Hyde,  "  of  my  home-coming, 
of  my  illness,  and  that  it  was  walking  in  dark- 
ness without  any  light,  but  resting  on  the  Lord 
— walking  through  the  storm  back,  back  to  the 
ship  and  behold,  suddenly  the  ship  was  at  the 
land — the  Eternal  Land.  The  heart  has  been 
full  of  praise  and  the  time  has  been  passed  in 
singing  Punjabi  psalms  and  songs.  I  was  on 
Mount  Carmel,  face  bowed  in  worship  and  have 
seen  a  cloud  of  blessing  rise  out  of  the  sea  of 
the  Father's  love  bringing  such  abundance  of 
rain  over  all  the  earth,  especially  to  Ludhiani, 
Moga,  Dandar,  Ferozpur,  and  all  the  mission. 
Tell  them  I  have  gone  to  Christ  shouting, '  Bol, 
Yisi  heasih  Ki  Jai ! '  ( '  Shout  the  victory  of 
Jesus  ' )."  If  a  man  determines  to  know  noth- 
ing save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified  he  can 
always  shout  the  victory  of  Jesus. 

With   such   a  song  in  the  heart,  and  such  a 

[97] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


message  dominating  the  life,  that  minister  will 
win  some  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls  on 
the  way  for  Jesus  Christ. 

Now  I  am  not  advocating  some  particular 
class  of  work  that  may  be  associated  with  the 
traveling  evangelist.  You  will  be  interested  in 
knowing  that  in  the  eighteen  years  of  my 
ministry  I  have  never  had  such  a  man  in  my 
church.  In  all  that  time  I  remember  having 
only  one  man  come  and  preach  for  me  in  a 
special  series  of  meetings  for  so  long  as  a  week. 
My  work  might  have  been  more  prosperous  if 
I  had  had  the  evangelist.  I  do  not  forget  that 
there  are  diversities  of  gifts.  And,  while  some 
men  have  a  gift  for  approaching  men  and 
women  in  private  conversation,  and,  discovering 
their  need,  for  presenting  Jesus  Christ  to  them 
as  Saviour  and  Lord,  not  all  men  have  this  gift. 
There  are  those  who  are  gifted  in  the  utterance 
of  an  awakening  and  moving  message  from  the 
pulpit,  and  who  are  permitted  to  welcome  large 
numbers  of  persons  on  confession  to  the  Church. 
But  I  do  not  exalt  such  men  overmuch  in  say- 
ing that  the  dominant  purpose  of  a  triumphant 
ministry  is  to  win  souls  to  Jesus  Christ. 

[98] 


THE    GOAL 


Fred,  get  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  is  a  '*  passion  for  souls."  The  misfortune 
of  too  many  ministers  is  that  they  fall  into  the 
slough  of  professionalism  early  in  life,  and  never 
escape.  They  carry  its  soil  on  their  garments 
everywhere  they  go.  It  gives  them  a  pulpit 
tone.  It  gives  them  a  style  of  dress  and  ad- 
dress. It  encircles  them  in  an  atmosphere  that 
smells  of  school  and  library  and  ancient  musty 
traditions.  They  have  no  consuming  zeal  in 
God's  house.  They  have  no  passion  against 
sin  or  against  anything  except  assaults  upon 
the  historic  positions  of  their  branch  of  the 
Church.  They  would  work  long  and  hard  in 
formulating  and  defending  a  doctrinal  statement 
of  the  Church,  but  if  a  man  was  taking  the 
wrong  path  and  hastening  toward  the  pit,  they 
would  not  know  how  to  halt  him,  and  they 
would  not  go  out  of  their  way  to  do  it.  Men 
like  that  have  usually  found  the  ministry  an  op- 
portunity for  congenial  work.  And  the  man 
who  is  simply  earning  his  bread  and  butter  in 
a  straight  collar,  clerical  vest  and  coat,  is  no 
more  to  be  honored  than  any  other  man  who 
takes    advantage    of  a  tradition  or  custom  to 

[99] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


practice  an  art  to  secure  his  mattress,  meat  and 
malt.  There  is  just  one  great  cure  for  profes- 
sionahsm  in  the  Church,  and  that  is  love — love 
for  Jesus  Christ  and  our  fellow  men.  And  when 
a  man  starts  out  in  the  ministry  with  this  love 
burning  in  his  heart  to  lead  men  and  women  to 
Jesus  Christ,  there  is  no  mistaking  that  domi- 
nant note. 

*'  How  did  McCheyne  preach  ?  "  it  was  asked. 
*'  As  if  he  wanted  to  save  your  soul,"  was  the 
reply.  And  that  made  a  man  an  example  to 
the  whole  Church  before  he  was  thirty-two.  It 
determined  his  method  and  habit  of  work.  It 
was  expressed  in  the  choice  of  his  reading  and 
scholarly  pursuits.  It  shaped  the  message 
which  he  brought  from  week  to  week.  It  en- 
circled him  with  an  atmosphere  of  sweet  per- 
fume that  has  gone  out  into  all  the  world,  and 
after  well-nigh  a  century  it  has  not  lost  its 
strength.  And  a  passion  for  souls  will  do  as 
much  for  you  and  for  me  to-day  as  it  did  for  him. 

But  understand  that  this  does  not  mean  a 
passion  for  getting  people  into  the  visible 
Church.  To  get  a  man  into  the  membership  of 
the  Church  without  bringing  him  to  Christ  is  to 

[100] 


THE    GOAL 


make  his  last  state  worse  than  his  first.  You 
find  now  that  the  presumption  that  he  is  not 
acquainted  with  Christ  embarrasses  you  in  any 
effort  to  approach  him.  When  a  man  has  ob- 
served one  of  the  most  important  outward  signs 
of  an  inward  grace  without  the  grace,  he  has 
hardened  the  heart  against  the  entrance  of  the 
truth.  When  you  preach,  you  will  be  constantly 
facing  an  auditor  who  has  the  form  of  godli- 
ness but  who  is  denying  the  power  thereof. 
And  that  makes  the  chariot  wheels  josde  the 
posts  at  the  gate,  if  it  does  not  halt  you  there 
altogether  and  keep  you  from  making  the  race. 
No,  my  friend,  do  not  mistake  the  padding  of 
the  church  rolls  for  the  work  of  grace.  They 
are  not  the  same.  There  is  more  joy  over  one 
sinner  that  repenteth  than  over  ninety  and  nine 
that  come  into  the  church  as  strays.  There  is 
a  chasm  of  difference  between  a  sinner  brought 
to  Christ  and  a  sinner  brought  in  with  Christ. 
And  a  man  who  is  a  mere  collector  of  the  un- 
saved is  far  from  the  man  who  is  a  winner  of 
souls.  They  do  not  have  the  same  ring.  One 
is  a  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal  and 
the  other  has  the  accent  of  the  music  of  heaven 

[101] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT   MINISTRY 


in  his  life.  And,  believe  me,  there  is  more  joy 
and  triumph  in  knowing  that  you  have  linked 
one  man  with  Christ  than  in  having  a  record  of 
the  largest  additions  in  the  Assembly  Minutes, 
or  Conference  Reports,  if  the  people  added 
have  not  been  saved.  If  through  your  ministry 
there  be  added  to  the  Church  daily  such  as  are 
'*  being  saved,"  then  you  will  be  shouting  the 
victory  of  Jesus  along  the  way. 

Your  great  aim,  my  dear  friend,  is  the  bring- 
ing in  of  a  better  hope.  This  is  one  of  the 
greatest  words,  and  one  of  the  greatest  needs, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  experiences  given  to  the 
human  heart — hope.  Those  who  are  without 
God  are  without  hope.  To  be  without  hope  is 
to  fall  into  that  dark  prison  where  the  sunlight 
does  not  fall.  It  means  to  lose  love,  to  have  no 
song  for  the  night,  to  have  no  experience  of 
trust,  to  find  all  our  calculations  fruitless,  to  be 
enveloped  in  despair,  to  be  lost  and  damned. 
The  truth  is  as  Celia  Thaxter  has  said  : 

There  is  no  day  so  dark 

But  through  the  mirk  some  ray  of  hope  may  steal. 
Some  blessed  touch  from  heaven  which  we  may  feel, 
If  we  but  choose  to  mark. 

[102] 


THE    GOAL 


We  shut  the  portals  fast, 

And  turn  the  key,  and  let  no  sunshine  in, 

Yet  to  the  worst  despair  that  comes  through  sin 

God's  light  shall  reach  at  last. 

Now,  that  is  the  ministry  to  which  we  are 
sent — the  bringing  in  of  a  better  hope  to  men 
and  women  in  the  dark,  to  men  and  women 
who  are  blind,  who  are  shrouded  in  the  night, 
to  those  who  have  grown  sick  at  hopes  now 
long  deferred,  to  those  who  have  missed  their 
way,  to  those  who  have  missed  the  mark,  to 
those  who  have  failed,  utterly  failed,  to  those 
whose  strength  is  gone,  whose  treasures  are 
vanished  and  who  face  death.  To  all  of  them, 
and  those  worse  than  they,  we  are  to  bring  in 
a  better  hope.  In  the  face  of  facts  like  these,  it 
is  incumbent  that  a  man  live  much  amidst 
things  that  are  not  seen,  and  that  he  remember 
that  the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal  but 
the  things  which  are  unseen  are  eternal. 

You  will  come  some  day  to  a  man  whose 
child  is  afflicted  with  what  the  doctors  tell  him 
is  an  incurable  malady.  The  plans  and  con- 
solations of  years  are  blighted  in  whatever 
direction   he   turns.     When   he  meets  you,  he 

[103] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


must  find  a  man  who  can  bring  in  a  better  hope, 
— the  hope  that  when  we  have  reached  the  end 
of  our  resources  we  may  find  God  there,  and 
that  he  is  able  to  do  for  us  when  all  others  have 
failed  ;  that  prayer  is  a  real  and  vital  thing  ; 
that  when  God  takes  hold  to  do  for  us  we  may 
find  a  way. 

You  may  meet  a  man  some  day  whose  life  is 
so  blighted  in  the  subnormal  lives  of  his  children 
that  he  can  find  no  comfort  in  the  present  world. 
And  you  must  have  something  for  him  and  for 
his  children  in  the  world  to  come.  One  such 
man  wrote  me  that  his  child  was  gone.  He 
said  that  life  had  meant  nothing  but  darkness 
here,  and  asked  what  he  could  hope  for  it  in  the 
world  to  come.  I  thought  of  the  welcome  Jesus 
gave  to  a  little  child,  and  of  that  great  mys- 
terious word  of  his  in  the  eighteenth  chapter  of 
Matthew,  the  tenth  and  the  fourteenth  verses, 
and  I  ventured  the  thought  that  in  the  world  to 
come  the  lives  that  had  been  cramped  and  cir- 
cumscribed here  would  have  greater  joy  and 
wonder  in  the  splendors  of  the  world  to  come, 
than  those  of  us  who  made  our  first  discoveries 
of  it  here  ;  that  when  they  arrived  in  that  land 


[104] 


THE    GOAL 


they  would  experience  the  joy  of  what  Christ 
had  done  for  them  when  they  could  not  do  for 
themselves,  and  that  each  hour  would  present 
some  new  discovery  which  their  before-im- 
prisoned Hves  would  make  with  new  and 
liberated  zest ;  that  while  they  lost  much  here 
in  the  anticipation  of  faith,  they  were  glad  in 
that  there  everything  was  gained.  This  is  my 
hope  and  it  has  been  given  to  three  other  men, 
whose  broken  hearts  have  received  it  gratefully, 
as  they  would  a  healing  balm. 

But  there  is  the  blessed  hope  in  the  appearing 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  in  his  glory  to  claim 
his  own.  At  a  great  ''  Prophetic  Conference  " 
this  **  better  hope  "  was  the  subject  talked  about. 
Speakers  presented  papers  and  addresses  on 
the  subject  as  it  is  related  to  many  aspects  of 
the  present,  past  and  future,  world  and  Church. 
I  was  not  present,  and  I  have  only  a  partial 
report,  but  the  representative  character  of  the 
men  who  sent  out  the  call  is  a  witness  to  the 
fact  that  this  better  hope  is  found  in  all  branches 
of  the  Church.  While  I  have  no  intention  of 
setting  forth  any  teaching  on  the  subject  in  this 
letter  to  you,  I  do  want  to  point  out  this  :    That 

[105] 


THE    TRIUMPHANT    MINISTRY 


the  men  who  look  for  this  blessed  hope  have  a 
simple  faith  in  the  trustworthiness  of  God's 
Word,  that  as  he  fulfilled  it  in  the  fullness  of 
time  and  sent  forth  his  Son,  so  in  like  manner 
will  he  fulfill  it  again  ;  and  that  this  same  Jesus 
whom  the  disciples  saw  ascending  into  heaven 
will  so  come  again  in  like  manner,  as  they  saw 
him  go. 

Fred,  I  beg  you  to  remember  the  kingdoms 
of  this  world  shall  become  the  kingdom  of  our 
Lord  and  of  his  Christ.  It  is  a  wonderful 
gospel  to  preach — bringing  in  a  better  hope. 
Men  and  women  who  have  sinned  unto  despair 
and  death  may  have  hope.  Men  and  women 
who  have  found  their  resources  of  moral  ex- 
cellence too  scant,  may  find  riches  of  inheritance 
in  Jesus  Christ.  Men  and  women  who  are  un- 
equal to  the  heat  and  tax  of  the  day,  may  find 
here  a  cooling  shade  and  a  fountain  by  the  way. 
Men  and  women  who  have  lost  their  crown 
may  receive  it  back  again. 

Let  this  be  your  goal — to  know  Christ  and 
him  crucified,  the  power  of  his  resurrection  and 
the  fellowship  of  his  suffering,  and  to  make  him 
known  to  others,  that  as  you  have  fellowship 

[106] 


THE    GOAL 


with  the  Father  and  with  his  Son,  so  may 
others  have  fellowship  with  you  and  him.  ''  For 
the  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  hath 
appeared  to  all  men,  teaching  us  that,  denying 
ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we  should  Uve 
soberly,  righteously,  and  godly,  in  this  present 
world ;  looking  for  that  blessed  hope,  and  the 
glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ ;  who  gave  himself  for  us, 
that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and 
purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of 
good  works.  These  things  speak,  and  exhort, 
and  rebuke  with  all  authority.  Let  no  man 
despise  thee." 

Cordially  yours, 

Timothy  Kilbourn. 


[107] 


Date  Due 

(^  mn 

•47 

'^l^^itimm^ 

-> 

« 

^ 

